


Didn't Expect This

by VampireRose



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Mafia Dealings, Mild Language, Not really sure, Sort of AU, angels don't exist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:42:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26522356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireRose/pseuds/VampireRose
Summary: Gabe was leading his normal, nocturnal life. Wake up, check phone. Shower, check phone. Eat, check phone. Normal routine.Until a tall, bleeding man showed up at his doorstep.Sam didn't know what he was getting into when he knocked on that door. He just needed shelter from the rain.
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

Gabe went through his typical routine. Wake up, check phone for messages. Shower, check phone for messages. Make or order breakfast, check phone for messages.

It felt like he was glued to his phone. Not surprising, all things considered. Especially with his current job.

He decided to order something. Delivery. He didn’t feel like cooking today. Hadn’t, for a while, but that was irrelevant. Today was just the day he finally didn’t force himself to move and make toast.

After ordering breakfast off some place in Grubhub, he flopped on his couch. With the lack of gray fur hopping up to join him, he figured the cat was outside. He couldn’t remember if the fluffy thing had followed out to get the mail today.

Or was it last night?

He turned his TV on, flipping to some channel for background noise, scrolling through his phone as he waited for his food to arrive. It was his routine, he did this every day.

It wasn’t like there was anyone to disrupt it.

That thought was dispelled when he heard knocking at the door. Gabe rolled off the couch and padded in his socks to the main entryway of the house, grabbing his wallet from where he’d left it on the table next to the door as he opened the door.

“That was fast-” His comment was cut off as he looked up from digging through his wallet to see a drenched man in jeans and way too many jackets. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that you’re not the Grubhub guy.”

“Uh, yeah no.” The man grimaced a little. Or maybe he didn’t and it was just his expressions changing. It was hard to tell through the darkness and rain. “I need a place to stay for the night. Do you mind if I stay here?”

“And why do you think I’d be letting some strange man into my house?” Gabe asked, slipping his wallet into a pocket of his sweatpants. 

“Please,” The man sighed. Even through the rain and dim light, it was obvious he was exhausted. “Please, just a few hours. I’ll be gone before you wake up, it’ll be like I wasn’t even here.”

“Yeah, bad news for you, bucko,” Gabe slipped into his joking, light-hearted manner easily. It seemed to surprise the man, Gabe going from guarded to grinning faintly. “This is my morning.”

“Oh- um…” The man looked down the street, desperation in his voice despite the few words. As he broke eye contact, Gabe looked down- away- and froze, letting out a heavy sigh at what he saw.

“God dammit,” He groaned. “Alright, come on in. Be glad my lifestyle consists of doing fairly illegal things and that I was a doctor for a few years and was top of my med class.”

“Uh- What?”

“You really think I’m gonna let a soaked, bleeding dude hobble away? Lemme guess, one of the Novak boys tell you about me?”

“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about,” The man was truly bewildered as Gabe opened the door wider, letting him come in. “Your lights were on and it’s raining.”

With a quick glance at the man’s face, Gabe shook his head. For once, it didn’t seem like this was one of his brothers’ men. For starters, he wasn’t dressed well enough. “Come on,” He led the man down a hallway to a clean, white room. “Sit on the table, maybe take a couple of the jackets off so I can see what’s got you bleeding like a stuck pig.”

Mystified, the man followed his directions, Gabe finding a towel and tossing it to him as he found his first aid kit.

The term was misleading. With everything he had, it was more like he ran a small, one-man hospital out of his home.

That wasn’t too inaccurate, if he thought about it.

After getting his supplies out, Gabriel turned to find that the man had followed his instructions, his heavy-duty jacket and at least three layers of flannel sitting in a sopping pile beside him, only a bloodstained gray t-shirt left on.

“You can toss your clothes on the floor, I don’t care,” Gabe told him. “I’ll get the blood out before you go.”

“Okay, I probably have no right to ask this, but what  _ is _ this?”

“Well, if you’re not one of my brothers’ boys, this is probably pretty new to you. Hi, my name’s Gabe, and you’re not the first bleeding dude I’ve had on my doorstep at half-past midnight. Gotta say, though, you’re probably the tallest.”

Gabe said all this as he set his basic things up then went to wash his hands, snapping on rubber gloves. From his quick glances as he did so, the stranger was watching him, very bewildered.

“Alright, I’m gonna need you to tell me what type of wounds I’m lookin’ at here,” He stopped in front of the man, who was sitting on one of the clean metal tables in the room. It would have resembled a hospital bed if it had sheets, albeit much more uncomfortable. It wasn’t Gabe’s job to keep people comfortable, though. It was to keep them alive.

“Uh, the big one’s a stab, I think.” The stranger uncomfortably lifted his shirt, revealing a bleeding gash in his abdomen. “I don’t think it hit anything vital, but it’s been bleeding for a while and I was starting to get dizzy.”

“You  _ are  _ looking pale,” Gabe mused, taking a clean white towel and ruining it by pressing it to the wound, mopping up the majority of the blood that was currently outside the man’s body. “You’re gonna want to lay down, take some strain off. What’s your name, so I’m not patching up some stranger?” Not that that would be new or anything, but…

“Sam,” He grunted as he laid down. This gave Gabe a much better vantage point to deal with the wound. “My name’s Sam.”

“Alright, Sam, what are you doing to get stabbed by a blade this big?” The wound really was much bigger than Gabe got out of an average stabbing, stretching from just below that man’s ribs to near his hip bone.

“Would you believe me if I said it wasn’t a knife?”

“What else do you get stabbed by? A bullet? That’s called a gunshot wound.” Sam hissed as Gabe pressed a little too hard with gauze, soaking up more blood. “Sorry.” He was only apologizing for the extra pain. Not the sarcasm. That was just part of the price of having Gabriel Novak as your doctor.

“You’re fine,”

Finally, enough blood was cleared away that Gabe could see the extent of the wound. “Dude, were you fighting Wolverine? Looks like somethin’ tried to claw you to bits.”

“Something like that, yeah,”

Gabe paused, staring at the man for a few seconds, before shrugging and huffing out a breath. “Better than a gunfight.”

“Wait- What?”

“Not gettin’ into right now. Shut up, I’m gonna have to stitch this and that won’t be pleasant. You have somethin’ against shots?”

“Not really.”

“Good.” Gabe injected Sam with something, ignoring the other man’s yelp of protest.

“What the hell was that!?”

“Local anesthetic. It’ll numb up the area so you can’t feel me stitching you up and will last long enough to get you somewhere with a pillow. I’m not putting you to sleep, don’t have the equipment or care for that, but it might start messing with your head after a bit. This kind tends to do that.”

Sam lay still and silent as Gabe stitched up the three cuts along his abdomen. Looking at them, Gabe wanted to say that they resembled an animal’s clawmarks, but were way too straight and clean for that.

“You put up little argument with that. Good job, most guys I get fuss about a bullet hole getting a few stitches, but here you are with thirty holding you side together and nary a peep.”

“I’ve had worse,” Sam responded softly. At some point his eyes had closed. “And without the numbing stuff. Best anesthesia I’ve ever really had for stitches was alcohol.”

“I’ve done that before,” Gabe winced. “Not pleasant on either side of the needle.”

Sam’s eyes opened. “You’re surprisingly okay with all this.”

“Like I said,” Gabe grinned as he put bandages over the stitches. “Not the first bleeding dude on my doorstep less than an hour after I wake up.”

“So, what, you’re nocturnal?”

“Sam, this is an old person village. Why do you think my lights were the only ones on? Obviously I’m nocturnal. Do my best work at night. Not a fan of the sun.”

“You are pretty pale,” Same mused as he regarded the man standing above him.

“I’ve been called a vampire. By my brothers. Lovingly, of course.”

“Nah,” Sam grinned. “Vampires ain’t actually pale. Not usually.”

“Aaand it’s gone to your head,” Gabe shook his head. “Of course. Alright big boy, sit up and shirt off.”

“Ooh, putting the moves on me while I’m drugged and injured?”

“Nope, getting you out of clothes that’re gonna make that wound worse. Bloodsoaked shirts count in that. Besides, I don’t fool around with patients while they’re patients. Save the flirting for after the stitches are out.”

Sam’s grin grew wider as he sat up, but Gabe saw the teasing element found in many of his brothers’ smiles. Good.

Gabe helped Sam to go to one of the tables and got the man set up on his side with a pillow under his head. Thankfully, he was used to dealing with big bulky men. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure if the bed could have taken his height. Amen for tall siblings, Gabe thought. For once.

“Alright, get some sleep,” Gabe ordered. Sam nodded, eyes already slipping closed. Soon later, his breathing evened out. Almost immediately after that, the doorbell rang.

“Please be the Grubhub guy, please be the Grubhub guy,” He chanted, hurrying to the door. He was, however, let down a second time.

“Hey Gabey,” A tall blond grinned down at him, leaning against the doorframe. “Got room for another?” It was difficult to miss his pained grin that would have looked at ease for the rest of the world or the way his hand was recessed against his shoulder, skin stained red.

“God dammit,” Gabe repeated, very similarly to the last time he was at the door. “Get your ass in here.”

Unlike Sam, this man didn’t need to be escorted to the clinic, simply straightening up and following the shorter man.

“This guy one of Mike’s?” The blond asked upon noticing Sam.

“Nope,” Gabe replied as he cleaned up his working area. “Good to hold on for a few seconds?”

“Yeah, I’ll live. Not like I’m bleeding out of my shoulder or anything.”

“You’ve been shot before Nick, suck it up.”

“So touchy. He one of Adam's?”

“No. Actually, when I asked if one of you guys had sent him, he was confused. Just some random injured dude that happened to show up on my doorstep.”

“That’s weird.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Gabe finally finished cleaning up and nodded at the table, heading to wash his hands again. He was nothing if not sanitary when it came to his patients. Mostly. “Go ahead and sit ‘n strip.” Chuckling softly at Gabe’s phrasing, Nick gingerly pulled his shirt off, tossing it on the floor right where Sam’s clothes had been.

Gabe removed the bullet from Nick’s shoulder, stitching him up and ignoring his whines of pain.

“What happened to that damn anesthetic?” He asked.

“It’s just a little hole,” Gabe answered remorselessly. “And maybe you get the good stuff when you apologize.”

“ ‘Pologize for wha’?”

The sleepy voice that spoke definitely wasn’t Nick’s. Gabe leaned around the blond to see Sam’s eyes opening.

“Mornin’ Sam. Slept for a whole half hour, maybe.”

“Who’s apologizing for what ‘n where am I?” The groggy man tried to sit up, freezing and letting out a soft groan.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t move. Anesthesia’s not that great, it’ll be wearing off by now.”

“Where am I?”

“Who  _ are _ you?” Nick asked, then groaned as Gabe pressed on the half-stitched hole in his shoulder. “Dude!”

“No talking to the other patients,” Gabe ordered coldly.

“Okay, come on! I was drugged and it was like, a month ago.”

“That you tried to feel up one of your own men while high off your ass? Yeah. You wonder why I won’t give you any more?”

“Come on, man, it was a month ago. Aren’t you over it by now?”

“Obviously not. You wanna go somewhere else to get stitched up?” Nick’s silence was answer enough. “Exactly. Don’t grope my patients.”

“I was a patient too- Ow! Shit, man!”

“That’s no excuse. No drugs until you apologize and that means you get to suffer.”

“You’re just loving this, aren’t you?” Nick spoke through gritted teeth. It was obvious that Gabe’s actions were hurting more than he let on, but he wouldn’t give the shorter man the satisfaction of seeing it, even if he already knew.

“Of course. My clinic and there were way too many people around for you to behave like that. Not to mention the fact that you woke me up.”

“Okay, okay, I don’t need a lecture,” Nick rolled his eyes behind short breaths. “I got enough the night of. Can we move on?”

“Sure.” Gabe had finished stitching Nick up and was moving on to putting bandages over the neatly sewn hole. “So tell me, who was it that got to shoot the fabulous Nick Novak up tonight?”

“Aw, you think I’m fabulous? I’m so touched.”

“Answer the damn question.”

“Antonio’s drug dealer.” Nick’s deadpan expression was ruined by a cringe as Gabe pushed against the bullet hole again.

“The only Antonio you know died four years ago and he never touched drugs. Try again.”

“It wasn’t even a shootout. Just some random shooter with shit aim. Took care of ‘im, of course.” 

“Of course. Alright, you’re done. Get outta my house.”

“Just like that? You won’t show your favorite big brother any hospitality?”

“Me sewing a hole in your shoulder closed is hospitality enough. Go.”

“You really  _ are _ touchy,” Nick’s good-humored grin faded. “You okay?”

“Oh, just peachy,” Gabe’s answer was laced with sarcasm as he began cleaning his supplies up for the second time that night. “Only had to stitch two dudes up hardly an hour after waking up and my damned Grubhub is late. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t gotten any work done, cause I was waiting on my  _ damn _ Grubhub to bring me breakfast.”

“Okay, not that I don’t love listening to some dude that likes to grope people and the grumpy guy that sewed me up arguing, cause I really don’t, but can  _ someone _ tell me where the hell I am, what the hell time it is, and who the hell you are?” Sam was obviously much more awake, still lying on his side. Nick went to answer but moaned in pain as Gabe punched him right where the bandages were.

“You don’t get to answer,” Gabe told him as the blond glared at him. “But seriously? That took you out? You’re gettin’ soft.”

“Don’t act like a bullet wouldn’t ground you,” Nick groaned. “You’ve not been in the field in ages.”

Gabe lifted his arms and waved them in front of Nick’s face, eyebrow lifted. His shirt was long-sleeved, probably not the best to wear when sewing human flesh, but he didn’t care. It was red. “Don’t pretend that my pain tolerance hasn’t gone down. I’m just as much a part of the family as you, people know my face. Don’t have to be in the field to get shot at and it’s not like any of you were certified doctors.”

“You’ve been hit? And fixed yourself up alone?” Nick’s face softened momentarily, twisting again when Gabe hit him. “Okay, fine. Yeah.”

“Explanation, please?” Sam called impatiently.

“Right,” Gabe murmured. “Nick, go be useful and watch for my damn Grubhub. I want breakfast at some point soon.”

“Taking your phone to track it.”

“Only if you can figure out the password.”

The injured blond finally left the room, taking Gabe's phone from his sweatpants’ pocket.

“Alright,” Gabe spoke, hauling himself up onto the table opposite Sam. “So I’m Gabe Novak, that’s my asshat brother Nick. I have a medical degree and was a doctor for a few years ‘till I got bored. Currently, I’m in cybersecurity. In a few years?” Gabe shrugged. “No clue. Anyways, you showed up on my doorstep, bleeding and looking like a drowned rat. Me and my stupid ass are so used to taking care of injured strangers that I didn’t care that you seemed to have no clue who the Novaks were. Stitched your weird clawmark things up, you got a bit loopy and fell asleep. Brother showed up, I had to take care of him, and you woke up at some point during that. You got a last name or are you just Sam?”

“I’d prefer just Sam for right now,” The man replied after a few seconds of thought, absorbing everything he’d been told. 

“Alright, ‘just Sam’, you got anyone you need to call? I’m gonna go ahead and say you aren’t walking anywhere without assistance for a while and I’m just gonna keep you here for that time, in case you end up popping a stitch.”

“Um, yeah, I do need to call someone. Don’t know if I can stay, but if I do need to, that’d be fine with you?”

“Won’t be the first guy I’ve put on house arrest, won’t be the last. I’ve got extra rooms.”

“Um, thanks. By any chance, do you know where my phone might be?”

“On the washer,” Gabe gestured over his shoulder to his washing machine and dryer in the corner of the room behind him. “Your clothes were pretty bloody. They’re soaking right now, trying to get as much stain out as I can. Emptied all the pockets before I tossed them in, obviously. That’s a nice arsenal you got there. Good job on the secret pockets, you do them yourself?”

Sure enough, Sam’s phone, wallet, and a fair amount of weapons were sitting in a pile on the washer.

“Uh, no, I didn’t do any of those I don’t think. Maybe one or two but those were pretty old, so probably not many.”

“Who did them then? They’ve got good stitches.”

“My- My brother. Why?”

“Just wondering,” Gabe shrugged, bringing Sam’s phone over. “I used to sew. A lot, actually. Those stitches were hand-sewn and anyone that can get such fine stitches by hand is someone I’d like to meet.”

“You should see his stitching now. That’s actually pretty old. Granted, most of his stitches are going into me, if he does any at all.”

“Really?” Gabe nodded. “Well, I know how that feels. Why didn’t you go to him with these?”

“We got separated. I need to call and let him know I’m okay.”

“Go for it,” Gabe shrugged, digging through his pocket for his own phone as Sam unlocked his and dialed a number. “Dammit, Nick,” He hissed as he came up empty, remembering his brother had taken the device.

“Hey,” Sam spoke into his phone. Gabe moved to take care of getting the blood out of Sam’s clothes while he talked. “Yeah- Yeah, Dean, I’m fine. I mean, she scratched me up pretty bad, but I ended up stumbling across some dude’s house and- Hey, where am I?” He directed the question to Gabe, who was standing by the sink.

“I’m not giving my address out to some random dude I don’t know. I already kept you from bleeding out after your fight with She-Wolverine, I think I’ve done enough good tonight.”

“What city?” Sam gave him a slightly desperate, slightly pissed look. “So I can at least give him something.”

“Fort Lauderdale, Florida,” Gabe supplied. 

“Did you catch that?” Sam turned back to his phone call. “Fort Lauderdale. Not too far- Yeah, she scratched me. What did you expect, she’s a- you know what she is. Was. I took care of her. Yeah, I ended up at this guy’s house, no clue how I managed to drag myself out here without passing out, and he ended up taking me in to this- Hey!”

In a move Sam didn’t see coming, Gabe snuck over and snatched the phone.

“Don’t move, you’ll pop the stitches,” He ordered before raising the phone to his ear. “Hi, this is the guy who stitched Sam up. I’m assuming you know what it was that scratched him, based on what I heard of the conversation. He had three deep lacerations, almost like clawmarks but too straight and neat, running from just below his ribs to just above his hip bone. They all started in the same spot but the middle runs about an inch longer than the other two. I sewed him up, he’s still slightly drugged, and he’s not leaving for a few days. After I do allow him to go, he needs to do very little to no strenuous activity until the stitches are out, decreased activity for at least a week afterward. I would prefer to keep him here until I can take the stitches out myself and monitor the wound, but if you must take him after three days, I will allow it.” Gabe spoke smoothly and professionally, his voice changing from the joking tone it held with Sam to a businessman-like confidence. “I am a certified doctor but considering the fact that Sam showed up on my doorstep, soaked and bleeding instead of going to a hospital, I decided to patch him up here. I had sterile supplies.” Gabriel didn’t feel the need to mention that he hadn’t worked in a doctor’s office for at least four years.

“ _ You’re not going to prevent me from seeing my brother _ ,” Came a deep, stern voice from the other side after Gabe had finished speaking.

“I’m not keeping you from your brother. Limited, controlled visitors. Doctor’s orders. It’s also doctor’s orders that you  _ don’t sit up _ ,” Gabe’s tone took a sharp turn during his last words, the sentence pointed to Sam, who, sure enough, was in the process of trying to sit up.

“I don’t know you well enough to listen to you,” Was Sam’s grunted reply.

“I have enough drugs to knock even a giant like you on his ass for days. Also, unless memory fails and  _ I’m _ not the one who was bleeding out, you showed up on my doorstep, begging for help, at midnight-thirty. You listen to me.”

“ _ Shit, did he wake you up _ ?”

“No.” Gabe’s answer was short and clipped. “I’m sorry, but I need to hang up, Dean.” He used the name he’d heard Sam use, assuming it was the correct person. “I will allow contact between you and Sam, but right now, just know that he is alive and well and in capable hands.” With that, he hung up and tucked the phone in his sweatpants pocket, where his usually resided, crossing his arms and glaring at his stubborn patient.

Before he could say anything, however, they heard Nick call “Gabe! Food’s here! Shit.” The last word was muttered, likely not meant to be heard, but Nick had been coming back to the clinic.

“Don’t judge my breakfast choices and give it,” Gabe snapped. Nick silently handed the container over, knowing better than to get in between his brother and his food.

Especially stuffed chocolate chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and strawberry syrup.  _ Definitely _ not when he got the strawberry syrup. The sight of the pink liquid made Nick nervous.

Ignoring his two injured companions, Gabe tore into the thin plastic containing the plastic fork and knife and dumped the syrup on the pancakes, hungrily digging in. 

“Mike would disapprove of your use of plastic cutlery, not to mention the fact that you’re eating from a plastic container,” Nick sounded vaguely amused by the situation, leaning against a table and watching his brother with a smirk. 

“Michael can lick my ass,” Gabe mumbled through a mouthful of food. “I’ve been awake for over an hour, I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and I’ve had to deal with  _ you _ without coffee. I deserve to be ‘unrefined’.” He lifted one hand to use air quotes for the last word, causing Nick to chuckle and Sam to grin. He would have laughed, but the unsteady movement when he’d tried had stretched the stitches more painfully than he’d expected.”

“Yeah… Fuck Michael,” Nick mused.

“I’d really rather not, if it’s all the same to you.”

Sam burst out laughing barely a second after Nick, stopping almost immediately with a groan.

“Ow,” 

“Hey, don’t laugh, it’ll hurt,” Gabe supplied unhelpfully. Sam simply gave him a bitchface, the term coined by Dean after one too many disapproving glares one night. Gabe simply smirked at him and returned to eating. “Dammit, this is so much better than toast,” He mumbled, not even realizing he did so until Nick spoke.

“You’ve been going through a toast spell?”

“Um… Forget I said anything?” 

Whatever Nick was about to say in reply was interrupted by the doorbell. The brothers shared a look before Nick sighed and left to answer it, Gabe ungracefully shoveling more food in his mouth.

“Gabe, we got company!” Nick called. Gabe swallowed quickly.

“Yeah, no shit! Bring ‘em back.”

Nick did so, leading a group of five. By what Sam could see, all of them were bleeding.

“Fuckin’ shit,” Gabe swore when his gaze levelled on the black-haired member of the party, who was also shirtless and covered in blood. “Get your cute little ass to a table, James, and tell me what the hell happened because if there’s  _ one thing _ I didn’t expect tonight, it was to see one of the baby-blue crew bleedin’ in my clinic. Please tell me Cassie wasn’t with you.”

“Castiel’s at home. He’s not been feeling well,” ‘James’ groaned as an answer, Nick helping him limp onto a table. Then, despite his only being a few inches taller and having a slimmer build, lifted the young man onto the table with apparent ease, hardly flinching at the pain that must have gone through his shoulder.

“Nicholas, sit. No heavy lifting, no getting anywhere near patients,” Gabe’s voice had taken a cold, commanding tone and Nick, surprisingly to Sam considering what he’d seen, didn’t argue. Instead, he went to sit on the table near Sam, watching his brother work.

He ordered the other five men to tables and did a quick assessment of wounds. He worked on the worst first, a buff guy that was about his height, then James, then the other three.

“Why isn’t Nick helping?” James asked as Gabe moved on to him. 

“I’m not allowed to,” Nick answered just as Gabe gruffly responded “ ‘Cause Nick’s an ass.”

The two paused with quick glances between the three of them, Sam obviously, unsurprisingly, missing something.

“You want a shot or just go for it?” Gabe asked, turning back to James.

“Just go for it,” The young man responded, jaw working as Gabe pressed gauze against a bullet wound on his bicep.

“You sure? You got three holes-”

“Just do it, Gabriel,” James’ voice suddenly got deep and gravelly, very commanding. Gabe nodded shortly and prepped his needle and thread as Nick struck a conversation with the black-haired man. Sam recognized it for what it was- James was refusing the shot of local anesthetic and was opting to get the stitches put in without any kind of numbing and Nick was trying to distract him. Granted, Nick had done the same thing, but wasn’t given a choice.

It made Sam wonder what the guy had against anesthesia. And why Gabe had given him a choice when he didn’t do the same for him or Nick.

“Kid, you sounded Cas for a second,” Nick commented. James rolled his eyes before sucking a breath between his teeth.

“Not a kid and  _ wow _ , what a  _ surprise _ ,”

Instead of smacking any of the bullet holes, which is what Gabe would have done if it were Nick, he simply shook his head, preparing to start sewing.

“Shit. Ow, fuck. God, dammit, shitfuck,” James let out a string of curses that would make a sailor blush as Gabe began working. Despite this, the doctor didn’t stop, knowing the younger would tell him when to stop.  _ If _ he should stop.

It took Gabe getting through sewing one and a half of the bullet wounds for James to break.

“Gabe, Gabe, Gabe. Stop. Stop. Please, stop.”

“You good?” Gabe looked up, concern written all over his face. It only grew stronger when the black-haired man shook his head. 

“I can’t- I can’t…”

“Need the shot?”

James let out a heavy sigh of defeat. “Yeah,” He whispered. Gabe nodded and got up to grab the anesthetic, putting significantly less than he’d given Sam in the syringe. He carefully injected it near the unsewn holes and everyone in the room pretended not to notice the tear crawling down James’ cheek.

Gabe had quickly finished sewing the bullet holes and was about to move on when one of the other four men that had been with him spoke up.

“That’s not all, Gabriel,”

“What do you mean?”

“Uriel, shut up.”

“Jimmy hasn’t told you of all his injuries,” The dark-skinned man ignored James’ order. Sam got the feeling that this was significant, but wasn’t sure why. That feeling was also overshadowed by what ‘Uriel’ had said.

“James Dmitri Novak,” Gabriel growled, suddenly becoming a terrifying presence in the room. His being seemed to fill the clinic, dwarfing everyone despite his being the shortest physically. “Explain yourself.”

James, or Jimmy, as Uriel had called him, actually flinched from the enraged man. With shaking hands, he shifted and moved the leg of his pants, revealing the deep gash in his thigh. 

Gabe closed his eyes and took a breath. “When I come back,” He started, his voice deceptively calm. “You will be loopy on the anesthesia and you will not be wearing pants. Nicholas, you will help him and I will come back with a pair of shorts. You had better get ready to have the trip of your life because I am not dealing with that with mildly sober you.”

“Gabe, I don’t-”

“You shut it,” The tawny-haired man interrupted. “I don’t give any shits about what you’re afraid of right now. You have a fucking _ stab wound _ in your leg and didn’t bother to tell me. You don’t get to worry about your problems anymore. I will help you through the withdrawal if it happens,  _ I don’t care _ . It’ll be you, me, and my little stray. But for the next three minutes, you get to sit on that cold metal slab in your boxers and you don’t get to complain.” As he spoke, he prepped another shot of anesthesia, a different type than what had been given before, Sam thought, but he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to. The shot was injected into James’ bicep and thrown into a container on the wall, then Gabe left the room.

“So, um…” Sam decided now was just as good as any to speak up and from what Gabe had said, James would be tripping  _ hard _ on the anesthetic. “Hi.”

James jumped and turned to his voice, finally noticing the tall man who had resumed his lying position on his own table/bed.

“Um… Are you one of Nick’s?”

“One of Nick’s whats?”

“He’s not,” Nick told his brother. At least, that’s what Sam assumed they were, considering the use of the name Novak. Distractingly, he began assisting the injured man out of his pants. “He’s the stray Gabe was talking about.”

“I thought he meant the cat,” James sighed.

“Gabe would die before he called that thing a stray.”

“I’m sorry, who are you and what’s going on now? And why are so many people coming here injured?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t know shit,” James mused. “Definitely a stray.”

And thus came bitchface #2.

“Alright, this is our brother, Jimmy,” Nick began.

“But Gabe called him James.”

“And I called Gabe Gabriel. Gabe called Nick Nicholas. You really think half of us go by our full names?”

“Luce sure doesn’t,” Nick chuckled.

“Luci’s cursed,” James- Jimmy shot back with a grin. “Only reason it isn’t worse now is because he had it legally changed.”

“Explain,  _ please _ !”

“We’re from a big family,” Nick started.

“Huge.”

“Shut it, child.”

“Not a kid.”

“ _ Anyway _ , there’s a lot of us. Gabe, me, Jimmy, Cas, who we were talking about earlier, his full name’s Castiel. And then there’s also Lucien, who used to be Lucifer until he got it changed the moment he turned 18. There’s a bunch of others but we're not talking about them.”

“Who would name their kid  _ Lucifer _ ?”

“None of us are very sure how that happened, just that I’m very lucky not to have ended up as Beelzebub,” Nick replied. “We have no idea how anyone thought Lucifer was a good name for a kid, but my bet’s on a very drunken night that ended in us coming into existence.”

“Nick,” Jimmy whined. “Gross.”

“Hey, the question was raised, I just answered.”

“But  _ still _ .”

“You mentioned a Michael at one point.”

“Ah, yes, Michael,” Jimmy drawled. “The prodigal second-oldest.”

“You know, it could really be Adam that’s second,” Nick shot back.

“ _ Guys _ ,”

“Adam and Michael are the oldest two, seven minutes apart. Nobody’s really sure which one’s actually the older one because they were completely identical and it was really chaotic at the time, so babies got flip-flopped. We like to say that Adam’s oldest, just to spite Mike. But I’m still third by 30 minutes so Luci can suck it.”

“Nick and Luci are twins,” James elaborated. “Just like Cas is my twin and Loki is Gabe’s.”

“Don’t mention Loki around Gabe,” Nick warned.

“Dammit, how did you manage to start talking about the evil one,” Gabe muttered as he walked back in, throwing a pair of gym shorts at Nick with the order to help Jimmy get them on.

“Welp, topic’s up,” Nick sighed. “Hasn’t it been like, ten years by now?”

“Eight. And don’t you dare say how you think I should  _ try to talk to him _ or  _ forgive _ him or whatever. I’ll talk to him after he apologizes.”

“What  _ is _ it with you and apologies?”

“The bastard tried to kill me,” Gabe levelled Nick with a steady but weary glare, as if they’d had this very argument multiple times before. “I woke up to see myself trying to strangle me. You know how fuckin’ messed up that is? All because he thought  _ I _ arranged the hit on his damned sugar daddy. Like no, I’m a possessive shithead but I  _ am _ capable of sharing my brother.”

“Yeah, no matter how you might see Gabe act, just remember that he’s the sane one of the two,” Jimmy told Sam.

“And Luci’s freakin’ psycho too,” Gabe was saying. “There’s a reason we call them the Loony Two and they’re the only ones whose names start with L."

“ _ You’re _ the only one to call them the Loony Two, no matter how true that is, and your logic sucks,” Nick rolled his eyes in response then directed his next sentences to Sam. “But either way, we’re the better two of the twin issues. Luci and Loki are the psychos of the family.”

“Well, not true,” Jimmy cut in. “We have multiple homicidals. Just one fratricidal and- What did Luce do?”

“It’s what he  _ didn’t _ . And believe me, it was a lot worse before you were born.”

“We’re five years apart.”

“Okay, _ how _ are you still coherent?” Gabe demanded, attention turning back onto his brother.

“Dude, I’m barely hanging on. Whatever you gave me was  _ strong _ .” A faint giggle was released from Jimmy’s throat, a sound Sam had never thought he’d hear out of someone related to a man who apparently attempted to kill his twin. “I’ve been seein’ rainbows for like, the past two minutes.”

“Alright, down you go,” Gabe sighed with an amused grin, pushing his brother onto his back by the uninjured shoulder. “Let’s get you fixed up. Nick, as much as I hate to ask this, try to work on the other guys.  _ No _ groping.”

“ _ Ages _ ago, Gabe, ages.”

“Apologize and I’ll drop it.”

“There’s nothin’ to apologize  _ for _ !”

“You practically tried to rape a man in my house!” Gabe snapped.

“Nicky did whaa’?” Jimmy gasped. Apparently whatever medicine he’d been given had taken hold  _ fast _ and the dude was loopier than a slinky. “ _ Nooo _ .”

“Jesus, man, I’m sorry okay?” Nick snapped the words out, ignoring his high-as-a-kite little brother.

“ _ Thank you _ ,” Gabe fixed him with a bright smile. “Now go take care of people.”

Sam was very much ignored for the next while, which he took no offense to. His problem, though, was that he got bored and antsy and wanted to look something up- and Gabe still had his phone.

“Hey uh, Gabe?” 

“Mhmm?” The man was currently stitching another bullet hole.

“Can I have my phone back?”

“Come get it.”

“Dude, you… You kinda ordered me to stay off my feet.”

“And you’re  _ listening _ ?”

“I’m slightly wounded? And you could easily do to me what you did to Nick earlier, so I’m not taking my chances.”

“Well damn. Alright, let me finish up these stitches then I’ll come over and you can dig it out of my pocket.” At Sam’s disbelieving look, he rolled his eyes with a huff. “Do ya  _ want _ your phone covered in another man’s blood?”

“Not really,” Sam grumbled. Soon enough, Gabe came by and Sam managed to find his phone with minimal difficulty. “Thanks.”

“Sure. I’ll add it to your list of debts.”

“List of debts?”

“Well, see, I let you in out of the rain, sewed up your weird clawmarks-not-clawmarks,  _ and _ I’m giving you free doctor care, much better than what you’d get at a hospital. Now, I let you dig a phone out of my pocket and let you try to convince yourself that it wasn’t gay.”

“Dude-”

“Joking, about the last part. Damn, lighten up, will you?” Gabe glanced up momentarily to grin at Sam then returned to his stitching. “And just so you know, if you are actually gay, none of us care. You heard about my twin and his sugar  _ daddy _ , not  _ mommy _ .”

“The twin that tried to kill you.”

“Only twin I got.”

Sam let out a huff of slight amusement and returned his gaze to his phone, where a half-written text was waiting. He finished it and clicked send then turned the screen off, waiting for a reply.

**_Sam_ ** **: I need you to look up Gabriel, Loki, Nicholas, James, Castiel, Michael, Adam, and Lucifer/Lucien Novak.**

A few minutes later, his phone binged.

**_Dean_ ** **: Is that who you’re with right now?**

**_Dean_ ** **: Seriously rich family. Huge too, lots of twins and half-siblings**

**_Dean_ ** **: Bunch of stuff about embezzlement and a fair amount of illegal activities, but nothing solid**

The texts stopped for a few seconds, then two more  _ ding _ ed in. Sam read them, his face going white.

**_Dean_ ** **: Dude**

**_Dean_ ** **: They’re the freaking mafia**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I have no business starting a new fic when I've got three others to focus on. I swear, though I am working on chapters for Sam's Angels and Sleeping Beauty! Moony's Tale is another story (haha), but I do want to work on it! This idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I meant to just jot it down but then this happened...
> 
> Comments and kudos greatly appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

Sam felt like he’d forgotten to breathe as he read and reread those four words. 

_ They’re the freaking mafia _ .

What had he just gotten himself caught up in? He was a  _ hunter _ . He dealt with things that went bump in the night. He didn’t-  _ definitely did not _ \- get involved in the Mob. Hell no. One thing he refused to do was get into some organized crime ring. No way.

Apparently, though, yes way. Maybe. What would they want from him? Would they even care about him past tonight?

But Gabe- Gabriel. It felt too personal to refer to this guy as  _ Gabe _ now that he knew what he was. Gabriel had told Dean that, in no uncertain terms, he was staying for a few days. 

Perhaps Sam was being a bit hypocritical. It wasn’t like he was America’s Golden Boy. He  _ was _ on the FBI wanted list, same as Dean. 

But this? This was different.

They didn’t seem like mafia though. Everyone had finished being stitched up and now the three brothers were sitting- or in James’ case lying- around, talking, laughing, joking while the other four men were just sitting. They didn’t seem too inclined to make conversation and one of them was asleep.

“Sam, you okay?”

He was brought from his thoughts at Gabriel’s question.

“Uh- yeah. Yeah, ‘m fine,” He mumbled the last part of his answer, hoping that the man- Mob boss?- wouldn’t notice.

“You sure? You’re starin’ at your phone real hard,” Nick put in. A slight frown crossed Gabriel’s face.

“He looks pale. Maybe I should’a done a transfusion. He did lose a lot of blood but I was figuring, with his size…”

“I’m fine, honest,” Sam tried his best to be convincing, he really did. But this sudden revelation, the pain in his side, and the oddness of two members of the mafia almost fussing over him was making it really hard to focus. “Just not used to this,”

“To what?” Gabriel asked.

“All this,” Sam waved a hand around to try to encompass the whole room in his gesture. “Can’t remember the last time I was sewn back together somewhere that wasn’t a dirty old motel room, slightly tipsy off whiskey, with dental floss and a sewing needle. It’s just… Unfamiliar.”

Unfamiliar was definitely accurate here.

“Sewing needle and dental floss? And your scarring isn’t worse?” Gabriel looked nearly awestruck. “Okay, seriously, do you have some superhuman healing ability or somethin’?”

“No, just a brother that’s real good at stitches. A steady hand helps when it’s just me,” His fingers brushed down a small, jagged scar on his bicep, one of the first he’d sewn himself. Dean had been proud that he was able to finish. Apparently, his first time, he’d been sloppy and their father, who had been teaching him at the time, had ripped them out halfway through and made him redo them. Dean still had the scar, even though he’d probably been no older than eight when it had happened. It was on his calf, jagged and rough, even after all these years.

“Yeah, I’m definitely gonna need to meet this brother of yours,” Gabriel shook his head with a slight laugh and Sam pretended that the thought of Dean and Gabriel meeting scared him. Hell, the shorter man even scared him. Knowing who… What he was, it changed his perspective. Was the humor that had filled his eyes the entire time but three times that night real or fake? Were they really joking around with each other or was it for his benefit? Were they even really brothers or was it some mafia thing? None of them really looked like the other. Sure, Nick and James had blue eyes, but a lot of people did. None of them even remotely near the same hair color. There was no way they were related, right?

“Sam? Are you sure you’re okay?” Gabriel, whose statement had gone unanswered for too long, interrupted Sam’s thoughts, this time with a concerned frown.

“Yeah-”   
  
“Cause you’re zonin’ out and you’re pale, which are two bad signs for someone with mysterious injuries like yourself.” Gabriel slid off the table he was perched on next to Nick and came over to Sam, who tried not to tense. Still shirtless, due to the bandages and Gabriel not giving him something else to wear, he shivered as the man’s fingers brushed his skin. 

“Sorry, my hands get cold,” Gabriel apologized, making a second wrong assumption. He gently peeled away the bandages and froze, eyes wide. Sam, who was laying down, couldn’t see the wound from that angle and wondered at the reaction. “Sam,” Gabriel looked up at the man, his voice deadly calm and not betraying the fear in his eyes. “What  _ exactly _ wounded you tonight?”

“Um-”

“Because no wound that I have ever seen has done  _ this _ before. Not like this and not this fast.” With that, Gabriel peeled away the bandages completely, revealing the wound.

Sam sucked in a harsh breath. The skin around the three deep gashes had turned black and leathery and the wounds themselves were oozing around the tight stitches. Around the blackened flesh, his skin was reddened and inflamed.

“Dean. Gotta call Dean,” Was Sam’s only answer as he scrambled to pick up his phone. “He’ll know. Bobby…”

He quickly called his brother, pressing the phone to his ear.

“ _ Hello? Sam? _ ”

“Dean, something went wrong. The-” He glanced up at the people in the room, all watching him. Even James, who was still loopy and giggly, had noticed the serious and fearful atmosphere. “The lamia got me, I told you that, but the gashes are… They’re black and oozy and red-”

“Necrosis,” Gabriel supplied. “It’s necrosis. It shouldn’t happen in wounds this fast, there was no sign of it earlier.”

“Didn’t Bobby say something about lamias having some kind of venom in their claws?” Sam asked. Dean was silent for a minute.

“ _ How bad is it? _ ” He asked.

“Dean! Please.”

“ _ Um, I don’t know… Hold on. Okay, Dad’s journal doesn’t say anything- _ ”

“That’s because Dad only encountered one like, twice. Can you link Bobby into the call? He knows, he’s got to.”

“ _ That’s if I can figure out how to do it. Hold on a minute. _ ”

Sam waited while Dean tried to figure out how to link a call, listening to his muttered curses as he worked. Eventually, though, he succeeded.

“ _ Hello? _ ” Bobby’s gruff voice came over the line and Sam sighed in relief.

“Bobby! Hi, I need you to tell me everything you know about lamia venom.”

“ _ Lamia venom? Like the one you boys were hunting in Florida _ ?”

“Yes, that one. Problem is, Dean and I got separated, the lamia scratched me, I got patched up but now like, everything that was under the bandages is black or red and they’re oozing- What did you say it was?”

“Necrosis,” Gabriel told him again, watching the exchange confusedly.

“ _ Who’s that with you _ ?”

“The guy that patched me up. He’s a doctor and don’t ask how I got where I am cause I really don’t remember much.”

“ _ Doctor, huh? Put it on speaker, I’ll be able to tell him what to do. He a hunter? _ ”

“ _ No, _ ” Dean finally spoke up. “ _ His name is Gabriel Novak. Sammy managed to land himself in the house of one of the kids of the biggest Mob boss in Florida. _ ”

“ _ Damn it Sam _ .”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Bad choices. I’m putting you on speaker now.”

Sam did so and set the phone down.

“Alright, who am I talking to?”

“This is Bobby. He knows what he’s doing. Bobby, Gabriel is right here. He’s the doctor.”

“ _ Alright, you said necrosis, right? How long has he been injured? _ ”

“He’s been here about two and a half hours, I’m not sure how long he was injured beforehand.”

“ _ Last time we were together was just outside of Plantation _ ,” Dean cut in. “ _ I don’t know how long between when we were separated and when he was hurt, but it’s been about 7 hours since I last saw him _ .”

“ _ Alright. Sam, you have any idea _ ?”

“No clue. Everything from when she got me to when I got here is kind of a blur. I don’t even know what road I’m on.”

“Plantation’s about a three and a half-hour walk from here,” Nick spoke up. “But injured, it would have taken him longer.”

“ _ Who’s that _ ?”

“I’m Nick, Gabriel’s brother. Who’re you?”

“ _ Bobby. Family friend. The other guy on the phone is Dean, Sam’s brother. Not important, though. We’ve got an estimate for time, though, which is helpful. _ ”

“ _ What’s the estimate? _ ”

“ _ Between five and a half and seven hours. I can narrow it down better if I have a picture of the wound and know what it looks like.” _

“Give me a second, I’ll send one to you,” Gabriel picked up Sam’s phone and found the camera app.

“Just take the picture, I’ll send it,” Sam told him, holding a hand up to take the phone. He definitely did  _ not _ want Gabriel to open his messages and read the texts Dean had sent. Gabriel, thankfully, handed the phone over and Sam quickly sent the picture. “There. Just sent.”

“ _ Alright. You said it’s oozing? _ ”

“Yeah.”

“ _ Means it’s been at least six… Okay. Dammit. _ ”

“What?”

“ _ Says lamia venom has a cure but it’s fatal in up to ten hours after entering a wound. _ ”

“ _ Son of a bitch,”  _ Dean growled.

“What’s the cure, I’m pretty sure I have access to it,” Gabriel cut in.

“ _ Sam, I won’t be able to get there in time. Dean, I’m sending you a list right now, you need to find your brother and get this dealt with. _ ”

“What’s the big issue?” Gabriel asked. “I’m literally right here. Just have me deal with it.”

“ _ Do you have access to fresh lamb’s blood _ ?” Bobby demanded. “ _ Thought so _ .” He grumbled after a stunned silence.

“ _ Where am I supposed to get lamb’s blood in Florida?” _ Dean asked sharply.

“ _ Lee’s got that outpost in Estero, he usually has most of what you’ll need _ .”

“Estero is almost a two-hour drive from here,” Nick cut in, staring at his phone. “Traffic’s been bad recently that direction, too. You won’t have time to get there, get everything you need, and get here. Give me a half hour and I can get the blood. Anything else you need?”

“ _ How would you manage to get it that fast _ ?”

“I have connections. Send Sam the list and instructions, we’ll take care of it from here.”

“ _ Sam, take us off speaker _ ,” Dean ordered. Sam did so and put the phone back to his ear.

“ _ It’s our best chance.” _

_ “They’re mafia, Bobby. Mafia!” _

_ “Would you rather your brother be dead? _ ”

Dean was silent for a few seconds.

“I’d say it’s our best shot.”

“ _ The only problem with that is that we also need a piece from the lamia. _ ”

“Does blood work?”

“ _ Yeah, that’s part of her. Why? _ ”

“Gabriel, did you clean my weapons already?”

“No, that’s your job,” Gabriel snorted. “You wanna get your knife covered in black goop and ruin the craftsmanship, that’s your problem.”

“Great, thanks. Got her blood,” Sam returned to his phone call. “All over one of my knives. I got her pretty good before I managed to gank her.”

“ _ Good enough. I’m sending you this list and instructions over email. _ ”

“Send it to Wesson,” Sam told him quickly. 

“ _ Alright. I’m going to hang up now. You’re gonna be fine Sam.” _

“I know, always am.”

The soft click on the line told them that Bobby had hung up, but Dean hadn’t.

“ _ You better not die on me, you hear? Let me know everything that’s happening. I’m gonna try to figure out where this Gabriel asshole lives and I’m gonna get you away from them.” _

“I know, Dean. Thank you.”

“ _ You’re gonna be just fine. Don’t go wimpin’ out on me now. Love you, ya little bitch _ .”

“You too, jerk,” Sam laughed, but it was forced. He could hear the well disguised fear in Dean’s voice and knew Dean could hear his. He was terrified. He didn’t want to die, not now, not from a lamia, and definitely not in some mafia guy’s house. “I’ll see you, Dean.”

“ _ See you, Sammy. _ ” With that, Dean hung up and Sam softly dropped the phone on the table. He closed his eyes wearily, only to open them again when something was pushed into his mouth.

“First off, you’re not going to sleep,” Gabriel told him sternly. “Secondly, I’m checking your temperature. Third, you need to give Nick that list Bobby was going to send you.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Sam mumbled around the thermometer and picked his phone back up, seeing that Bobby had already sent the email. “Got an email address?”

“Stop talking,” Gabriel ordered.

“ _ nicholasnov@novakinc.com _ ” Nick told him. Sam copied it down and forwarded Bobby’s email. “ _ wessonwinchester@gmail _ ? You a gun guy?”

“Something like that,” Sam answered after Gabriel removed the thermometer and cursed. “What?”

“Fever. Does Bobby’s stuff say anything about that?"

“Says it’s pretty common. Okay,  _ what _ is a lamia? All I’m finding is stuff about Greek mythology.”

“It’s not pretty, that’s for sure,” Sam muttered. “Real bitch to get rid of, too.”

Nick grumbled at the vague response. “Okay,  _ why _ do you need half this stuff? This is weird crap to get, even for us.”

“Weirder than the blowup doll Adam filled with helium that one time?” James asked, slurring.

“Weirder. How do you even know about that? You were like, twelve when he did that.”

“Donnie told me,” James had a loopy grin on his face. “ ‘N he tol’ me what y’all did wi’it.”

“That’s enough,” Nick laughed, slightly nervous sounding. “No more stories about the helium blowup doll.”

“Weren’t we like, 14 when we did that?” Gabriel asked.

“ _ You _ were,” Nick smirked. “Luce and I were 17, Adam was 19.”

“Why’d you have a 14-year-old kid with you while filling a blowup doll with helium?” Sam asked. It came out as more of a pained groan, but he didn’t notice and nobody else pointed it out.

“Cause he’s Gabe and he and Loki did practically everything when they wanted to. Me, Luce, Adam, and Donnie were gonna go out, mess around, and Gabe heard then he and Loki wanted to come. We let them because if we didn’t, then they probably would have ended up hiding in the trunk of the car, freaking us out when we opened it.”

“The one bonus of being smaller than everyone else,” Gabriel smirked, the expression dying away when he caught sight of the wound again. “Alright, Nick, get the stuff for this cure and get it fast. Forward me the email so I can know what to watch out for, does it have symptoms?”

“Bobby’ll have put everything he could find on there. He doesn’t leave out information.”

“Yeah, there’s symptoms. Hold on.” Nick poked around on his phone and Gabriel’s chirped from his pocket. “You got a notebook or something that I can write all this down?”

“Office. You mess with any of the shit on the left and I will break your ass.”

“Noted,” Nick left quickly, turning to the right out of the door. He soon returned, phone pinned to his ear. 

"I don't care if you have to slaughter the damn sheep baby yourself, get the blood." He snapped. "And the other things. They better be at Gabriel's within the hour or you'll find yourself without a job, possibly more. Got that? Good. Now do your job." He hung up and angrily shoved his phone into his pocket. "I swear, the sooner I can stop threatening them to get them to do their jobs right the first time, the happier everyone will be."

"Jofiel?" Gabriel asked. 

"Jofiel.  _ Always _ Jofiel. If he wasn't so good at his job, when he does it, I would have gotten rid of him ages ago. He's too damn arrogant and forgets who the employer is here."

"Get rid of him," Gabriel shrugged. “He’s replaceable, just teach someone new.”

“Takes too long though. I don’t have that time to waste.”

“You have enough time to waste sitting around my clinic at 3 in the morning instead of sleeping with your wife and son.” Gabriel gave his brother a dubious look.

“And go home the day I get shot? No thanks, Sarah’ll have my ass. Better I go home tomorrow and tell her I got out of work late and went in early.”

“She’d believe that if the two of you weren’t sexting right up until the moment I called you over to help,” Gabriel shot back.

“How’d you know?”

“You got the look. And she told me.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. You’re screwed. Have fun on the couch with that shoulder.”

Sam kinda zoned out of their conversation for a while. He was feeling weird, his head going fuzzy. He knew it was the venom, if only because of the ever-growing patch of black skin that stretched now halfway across his stomach and up his ribs. He was getting really tired…

“Hey! No, you snap out of it.” Gabe shook Sam by the shoulders when he noticed the man’s eyes slipping closed, growling under his breath and hitting the still-stitched wound when the movement didn’t wake him. The overly tall man snapped back awake with a harsh cough and a groan at the hit, grimacing. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me,” He growled. “I don’t care how tired you feel, you are  _ not _ falling asleep. I will  _ not _ have someone die on my table tonight, especially not from venom of some creature I’ve never heard of.”

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Sam nearly whimpered. “I just…”

“Nick, symptoms. Now.”

“At first, nothing. Then about five hours in, it’ll start festering, necrosis sets in.” Nick read. “From there, it’ll start oozing around six hours after the venom was injected. Fever will start to set in and victim will get extremely fatigued. Typically they’ll fall asleep, leaving them defenseless for the lamia- Holy shit.” He looked nearly about to gag.

“What?”

“For the lamia to take them back to her lair and wait for the remaining three and a half or so hours for necrosis to spread across the entire body. After about nine and a half hours, organs start to fail and the lamia will begin to feed while the victim is still alive but unconscious. That’s disgusting.”

The brothers gave Sam a vaguely concerned look and the tall man just sighed in response.

“I’m used to it.”

“Are there any other symptoms, things to watch out for?”

“Um… Looks like around hour seven, no matter what, they’ll fall asleep. Doesn’t matter how hard you try to keep them awake. Necrosis will spread, it gets even more oozy and gross, but just before they fall asleep, they’ll start hallucinating. It gets their heart rate up and the venom will move round the body faster. They may start talking more, typically things they don’t mean to say or wouldn’t usually.”

“Well crap,” Sam whispered. “Keep my phone away from me.”

“Breathing will gradually get more difficult, and they’re pretty much a deadweight after they’re out.”

“Wonderful,” Gabriel sighed. “We went with the assumption of six hours since he’s been hurt?”

“When we were talking to Bobby, yeah.”

“Alright. Looks like you’ve got no more than 45 minutes before your lights go out, might as well make the most of it.”

“Mr. Gabriel,” One of the men spoke up.

“Yes?”

“We’ll take Jimmy and get out of your way. It’s time we leave anyway. Thank you for the assistance.”

“I always help. Alright, you guys can go, just wake Gadreel up. And you take care of my brother, I don’t want him coming in torn up like this for  _ at least _ another month. Bring him back tomorrow, though, I wanna look over him.”

“Understood, sir.”

The three men that were still awake got off the table/beds, one moving to wake the other- Gadreel, and one moving to pick James up, who had finally fallen asleep. He was, by no means, a small man, likely at least six feet tall, but he was lifted like it was nothing. The final of the three held the door open as the group of five left, making it so only Sam, Gabriel, and Nick were left.

Little happened for another fifteen minutes. Then the doorbell rang and Gabe left to answer it. When he opened the door, he paused then suppressed a sigh.

“Well, I wasn’t getting any work done anyway.”

He led the two men in his doorway to the clinic, calling to Nick as he opened the door, “Thing Two’s here!”

Sam and Nick looked up to see a carbon-copy of the latter practically carrying a beaten and bloody man to the table. Gabe was already pulling a new pair of gloves on and preparing his supplies.

“Nick, go watch the door for whenever Jofiel brings the damn ingredients and when he does, get started on the cure. If I’m done fixing this idiot up by then, I’ll help. Luce, go get yourself cleaned up, you’re covered in blood.”

“Who’s the guy?” Lucien asked, obviously meaning Sam.

“Some dude that showed up on my doorstep. Got beat up by some creature I’ve never heard of that planned to eat him.”

“I didn’t get beat up,” Sam groaned. “She got one hit in. I burned the bitch alive.” He then paused for a second, thinking over his words. “Shit, shouldn’t have said that. When’d Nick say the hallucinations would start?”

“At some point before you go night night,” He replied. “No set time given. You seeing things yet?”

“Not yet-” He cut himself off, going rigid as he stared at something only he could say. “Hell no. Fuck you, you’re dead.”

“Some kind of venom,” Gabe explained to Nick’s very confused twin as he started cutting away blood-soaked clothes. “Never heard it before and it’s a damn weird recipe for the cure some friend of his sent over.”

“Weirder than the helium blowup doll?”

“Weirder than the blowup doll.”

“Why is  _ that _ incident your gauge for weird?” The man on the table groaned. 

“Didn’t know your suicidal ass was still conscious, Raphael. Hi.”

“I’m really not. I just heard blowup doll. This one wasn’t my fault, believe it or not, and I didn’t wanna end up in your clinic at 3 AM.”

“You never do,” Gabriel replied, throwing bloody scraps off the side. He’d clean later. “You’re probably gonna need a transfusion with this one. Guess who's gonna join the injured people party!”

“ ‘Party’?” Lucien asked. Sam noted that, while he looked identical to Nick, he had a different way of speaking. Slower, almost like he was tired or trying to put a baby to sleep.

“Well, we’ve got Sam back there, Jimmy’s coming back in the morning to deal with withdrawal cause I’m an ass and he got himself stabbed, and now Ninja Turtle here. What are  _ you _ doing out, away from the kids?”

“Raph, Donnie, Benjamin, and I were out for drinks. Ben and Donnie went home, Raph and I took a walk to clear our heads. Neither of us were good to drive at that point. Sobered up when gunfire started on us.”

“Sounds like what happened with Nick and Jimmy’s crew.”

“What happened to Nick-” Lucien looked up at his twin, who had at some point, pulled his shirt off and was showing off the bandages on his shoulder. “And Jimmy?”

“Nick got shot in the shoulder,” The man himself replied. “Took care of the idiot that did it. Dude had no idea how to aim.”

“And Jimmy, Gadreel, Uriel, Ishim, and Virgil were jumped like you guys were. Shot from above and Jimmy got himself stabbed. He’s okay now but I had to put some of the heavy stuff in him and I’m just worried now that it’s gonna mess him up. He’s been clean for a year, I know, but…”

“You worry about him,” Lucien finished softly. “We all do. It’s fine.”

Nick got a text and hopped up from his seat. 

"Jofiel's here," he told them as he walked out. 

Gabe continued cleaning Raphael up to see his brother back together and, as always when he did this, reflected on how common of a sight it was for him, blood covering his half-brother's dark skin. 

"Raphie, I think this is your worst yet," He murmured. The man had fallen unconscious, he knew, but it still felt right to talk to him. He didn't particularly care that Lucien was nearby. The older knew he liked to talk to his patients. 

And he had no place to judge. He, after all, wasn't the doctor and had used his brother's services many times himself. 

It all came with their lifestyle and how they were raised. 

"I mean, it isn't as bad as 2 years ago, but it's a close second. You said that you didn't go looking for it this time?" A pause followed, just long enough for a reply if Raphael could. "Damn, that sucks, dude. You're gonna just fine though, yeah? You'll pull through, like always."

The efficient doctor was already preparing to start stitching the first wound, bleeding stemmed as well as he could get it. He worked fast on the dark man, faster than he'd done for anyone else that might, Sam thought. 

Not that he was thinking very clearly. 

A quiet had settled over the room, broken by Sam's yell of "Fuck off, Satan! I'm not doing this again!" Followed by the think of his shoe hitting the wall, passing through a hallucination only he saw. 

Gabe jumped when this happened, cursing as his stitch went sideways. "Luce, go figure out his problem," He begged. 

"Looks like he's delusional," Lucien commented as he walked over to the tall man. "Completely out of it."

"Lovely. He looks tired?"

"Not really. He's just staring at the corner pressing a scar on his hand. What the hell is wrong with him?"

"No idea. We don't even know who he is, he just showed up on my doorstep. Don't even have a last name for him."

Luce stared at the man for a few seconds then turned away. Nick finally returned, carrying a plastic bag and scowling. 

"Damn Jofiel needs to learn his place," He growled as he walked over to Sam, pulling a notebook out of the bag. "Insolent shithead."

"Fire him if he's so bad," Gabe chided. 

"It's just a bad night," Nick sighed in reply as he re read the instructions he'd copied down. "I don't think we have 'essence of the lamia that bit him'."

"Black goop on my knife's her blood," Sam groaned, apparently still listening in. 

"Oookay, I was wrong."

Nick set to work making the cure for the venom as Gabe worked on putting his brother back together. 

"Gabe, is it okay if I sleep here tonight?" Nick asked. 

"Sure. There's a room last door on the left upstairs. Go up quiet cause if you wake Tammy, I will beat the hell out of you."

"Tammy's here?"

"I've got both the kids for the week. Mother and Father are off somewhere in the West Coast and they wanted to come hang with me for a while."

"What's wrong with Tam?" Lucien asked. 

"Kids goin' through a rough breakup. Found his girlfriend cheating on him behind the school and he's pretty torn up. He's the one that asked to come here, actually, instead of Mike's or Adam's. Wanted to come to the brother that wouldn't ask questions. I offered to take care of the girl, but he said no."

"Well yeah, you can't just _take care_ of a sixteen year old girl," Nick scoffed. 

"She's seventeen and no, I wasn't gonna hurt her. Just scare her so she never cheats on a guy and doesn't even think of looking at Tamiel again."

"That's fair," Lucien commented. 

"I've been there before," Sam suddenly spoke up. "Hell. It wasn't very fun when I was there. Dean didn't like it either."

"Okay then," Gabe mumbled into the following silence as he worked on Raphael. Nobody spoke for a few minutes until Nick finished the cure, Sam grabbing his wrist as he brought it over.

“I know what you are,” The tall man failed at a whisper, speaking at a normal volume. “I know. You’re mafia.”

He then promptly passed out, leaving three silent, stunned men staring at him.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning found Gabe wide awake, monitoring Raphael and Sam. 

That's the wrong phrasing. Wide awake would imply he'd gotten sleep. Gabe was simply caffeinated and exhausted despite this being his normal waking hours.

"Mornin'," Nick groaned as he came into the clinic where his brother had taken up temporary residence. "How're they doin'?"

"Not really much change," Gabe answered. He'd grabbed his laptop from his office, hoping to get some work done. He now set it aside, giving his older brother his full attention. "Sam got restless at some point but settled. He's still feverish but the necrosis seems to have reduced a little." He frowned at this. "Which is weird. Necrosis doesn't go away. It's dead tissue, and it looks like it's just coming back to life."

"Maybe we should call his friend. Bobby, was it? He seems to know a lot."

"And wake him up at 7 AM? I don't really think he'd appreciate that. What I'm more concerned about is how he found out about the family business."

"Yeah, that is weird," Nick thought for a second, then plopped down in a seat next to Gabe. "But enough about them. You've been on a toast run?"

Gabe suppressed a sigh. "It's not that big of a deal,"

"I say it is. You only go on toast runs-"

"When I get low. Yeah, I know. Believe it or not, I know I'm getting low. Why do you think I only got up at midnight yesterday?"

"Dammit, Gabe, why can't you take this more seriously?"

"I'm taking it seriously! You forget it's  _ me _ and  _ my _ eating habits you're talking about."

"I swear, you're more like Raphael than anyone else in this family."

"Excuse you, I am not suicidal-"

"You're close enough! You're practically starving yourself by eating literally only toast for days on end! And you don't even realize it's a problem!”

“I take meds on a daily basis in an attempt to stop this, I think I’ve realized it’s a problem.”

“Gabe-”

“Nick, stop.” Gabe stood up and went to check on Sam, his back to his brother, tense and angry. “I’m handling it. It’s my problem, not yours. Leave it. Go to your meeting.”

Nick sighed. “Alright. Alright, fine.” He stood and froze, groaning at the sudden pain in his shoulder as he tried to use his arms to help stand.

“You damn idiot,” Gabe grumbled, finding a pill bottle and shaking two pills out. “Take these, it should hold you over for a couple hours, at least four. Come back later, I might be asleep but the kids’ll be up. It’ll be good for you to see them.”

“It has been a while,”

“Yeah, the lucky little idiots get an empty house, devoid of almost everyone. We got bunk beds and squished cars.”

“Granted, Samandriel was born when Mike and Adam were 22, so they got a tiny bit of crampedness.”

“Not enough to remember,” Gabe snorted. “Mike, Adam, and Hester lived in dorms for their years of college and you ‘n Luce did the same. Everyone did and more and more people moved out every year till Akobel.”

“Well, not everyone. Zach, Miri, Cas, and Jimmy didn’t move out immediately.”

“Close enough,” Gabe rolled his eyes. “Now take the meds and get.”

“Fine, fine,” Nick jokingly raised his hands in surrender then took the pills, walking out of the house soon after.

“Alright, back to work,” Gabe muttered to himself after checking on Raphael and Sam again. He knew he only had an hour or so before Samandriel woke up, the 13 year-old waking on a set time of 8:30 AM on days without school. It being winter and just over a week before Christmas, they were already on winter break. Thankfully, for Gabe, because it meant he wouldn’t have to worry about leaving Sam and Raph to drive them to school. Samandriel and Tamiel would know to check the clinic if they were looking for Gabe thanks to a note on the kitchen counter that said ‘ _ I’m in the clinic _ ’.

Sure enough, Samandriel came in near 8:35, munching on a poptart. He must have brought them with him, cause Gabe had eaten all of his poptarts a week ago and hadn’t bought more.

It was easier to just eat toast.

“Who’s hurt?” The teen asked, walking through the room. “Raph and… Who’s that?”

“My newest stray,” Gabe answered. “Turned up on the doorstep last night, soaking wet and bleeding. He had a pretty rough night.”

“Ouch,” Samandriel winced in sympathy. “What’s his name? And what happened to Raph?”

“Raph and Luce got jumped outside some bar after leaving Donnie and Ben. Luce didn’t get hit, he said it seemed like they were  _ aiming _ for Raph. Really weird, to be honest, cause Jimmy and Nick were also hit.”

“That’s half of the twin groups. Shooting at Nick but not Lucien? So far as we know, Raph but not Donnie? That’s really not right. Do you know if Mike or Adam have been shot at, or Loki? Gail and Kabaiel?”

“What are you getting at, Samands?”

“What if these were targeted? Pick the twins, the ones who have been together forever, and try to kill, or at least seriously wound one? Break the other with worry? What if this is something big? Do you know if Donnie and Ben had any trouble getting home?”

“Not that I know of. I let Donnie know Raph was hit and he didn't say anything about trouble on the way back. He and Ben were driving though, Luce and Raph were walking around, trying to sober up. Why would anyone be targeting the twins, though? Or any of us at the moment? I don’t think anyone’s in bad standing with anyone in the business right now.”

“I don’t know…” Samandriel mused. “I’ll think about it. Get back to you.”

“How many… How many twin groups are in your family?” Sam groaned, his voice a hoarse whisper at first. He cleared his throat and spoke a bit stronger. “How many people are even  _ in _ your family?”

“Mornin’, Sam,” Gabe greeted, setting his things aside and moving to the wounded man’s side. “How do you feel?”

“Like shit, answer the question.”

“Wow, attitude,” Gabe lifted a brow, the constant humor glittering in his gaze. “But to answer it, there are 6 sets of twins and 22 kids in total.”

“Damn.”

“Not all of us are fully related to each other. Mom was  _ not  _ pregant 14 times. 8 half siblings, but most of the twins are full siblings.”

“How d’s that work?”

“Mother ‘n Father had a pretty open relationship. They could be with whoever they wanted, and so they were. Kid were just an aftereffect and Dad loved mentioning how he wanted a big family. Majority of us are related on his side. Alright, I’m moving the dressings, check how this looks.”

“Go for it,” Sam muttered, eyes closing as he prepared himself for any pain that may come with the movement. To his surprise, there wasn’t really any.

“Yeah, I’ve got you so doped on numbing meds that you probably won’t feel your stomach for three days,” Gabe joked a little. It was only a small exaggeration and he’d been careful with the doses.

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Nah, I did it so you’re fine. Your fever though, that’s concerning. You’ve been bouncing around constantly. Almost every reading is different on one end of the spectrum or another. What do you remember from last night?”

“Uh… You’re Gabriel, you patched me up. It was raining and… Shit, I shouldn't have said all that.”

“So you remember what you said before you passed out?”

“That y’all are mafia?”

“Yup.” Gabe gave his patient a tight grin. “Gotta say, you’re not entirely accurate, but I guess it’s close enough. For one, we're not Italian.”

“So, explain that? Why’d you take me in?”

“What, you think ‘cause we have a family business that most would assume the worst of, we can’t be human? Have feelings, compassion?”

Sam looked extraordinarily uncomfortable, especially when Gabe mentioned a family business. “Well, I mean-”

“Nah, it’s cool. You probably don’t know what we do and you really won’t be around long enough for it to matter. But! Since you apparently know so much about what I do for a living, what d’you do? What got you goin’ around, getting torn to shreds?”

“Well, you didn’t exactly tell me much about you.”

“You can Google me, you could figure out all of my life story that’s been released to press. I don’t even have a last name for you.”

“Surprised you didn’t go through my wallet while I was out,” 

“I do respect privacy,” Gabe shot back with a slight grin. “But hey, now you’ve practically given me permission.”

“Hey! No!” Sam groaned as he tried to sit up and follow Gabe as he went to the washer, where his wallet was still sitting. Instead, he was frozen by shooting pain in his side, despite the numbing medicine.   


“Don’t try to get up, you damn idiot,” Gabe scolded, turning back and pushing Sam back down by his shoulder. “Or I’ll drug you.”

“I’d like to see you try,”

“Oh, don’t tempt me,” Gabe grin turned slightly wolfish and predatory. “I worked in the ER for years, I know how to subdue a resisting patient. I’d be happy to stick a needle in your ass and watch you pass out drooling if you give me trouble. And may I remind you,  _ who’s _ the injured one here?”

Sam rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as best he could, lying on his back. He forced himself to ignore how  _ wrong _ it felt, Gabriel picking up his wallet. The tawny-haired man glanced at him once as he walked over again, holding the wallet closed. He paused near Sam and opened it.

“Well, hello… Sam McReady. And Robert Singer. And FBI Agent Hamill. And David Berkowitz. And a whole shit-ton others,” Gabe let dozens of fake IDs and credit cards fall from the wallet. “Dude, you got more fake IDs than Luce and Nick lost in college. Who  _ exactly _ are you?”

“You really don’t wanna know.” Sam tried to hide the bolts of nervousness fluttering through him. Gabriel’s constant grin had vanished. The humor in his eyes was still there, but it was muted. He was serious.

“Samandriel, please leave the room and don’t come in for a bit. I need some time alone with Sam.”

“Gabe-”

“ _ Go _ , Mands.”

With an irritated sigh, the teen obeyed, taking his poptarts with him.

“Now-” Gabriel turned back around to face Sam. He leaned forward, pinning Sam’s wrists to the bed. His expression had darkened to something that Sam had to admit, was terrifying.

And he didn’t get scared.

“-Let’s try this again, now that my kid brothers aren’t around.  _ Who are you _ ?”

“I don’t have to tell you,” Sam snarled.

“You will. I have ways of making you talk. You think this room is just a clinic? You’re wrong. I have things that, done just right, can make you see your worst nightmares.” Gabriel leaned in to whisper in Sam’s ear. “You think last night’s hallucinations were bad? You’ve seen  _ nothing _ compared to what I can do. So-” He straightened back up, his grin reappearing and looking like he hadn’t just threatened Sam. The weight on his wrists, though, never left. “Why don’t we do this the easy way, hm? So I don’t have to get my drugs out? There are ways of torture that aren’t pysical, and while I don’t make it a habit-” Gabriel shrugged. “It is a bit of fun when I’m in the mood.” His grin disappeared, expression darkening again. “But I’m not in the mood.”

Sam glared at the man, weighing his options.

“My name’s Sam Winchester. Honest. You look me up, you won’t find much. My mom died when I was a baby. My an’ my brother have been on the FBI watch list, died, came back and got back on the list. I think we’ve been on a total of three times at this point? Don’t know, don’t care.”

Gabe finally backed off, releasing Sam. “Was that so hard? But really, FBI watch list? Why do you pose as FBI then?”

“That’s a long story you almost definitely won’t believe.”

“Hmm…” Gabe grabbed his laptop and opened a new window in his browser. He typed a few things in and clicked a few times. “Alright. Samuel William Winchester, born May 2, 1983. Lived in Lawrence Kansas with mother Mary, father John, and brother Dean until… Oh. Till Mommy died in a house fire when you were six months. And… Not much info after that. Enrolled in bajillions of schools all over the country, left after a few weeks, maybe stayed a month then gone again. Got accepted to Stanford- Good job, there, college boy. What was your major?”

“Pre-law. Doesn’t say?”

“Eh. It does, but I wanted to ask. Says you dropped out though, why’s that?”

“Why do you care?”

“Tryin’ to figure out what’s with the IDs. Why you ended up on my doorstep, bleeding. I saved your life, if you don’t recall, from the lamia venom. I think you owe me some information.”

“Dammit,  _ fine _ . I’ll talk. Dropped out ‘cause my girlfriend was murdered. Pinned to the ceiling on fire, just like my mom. Few days before that, my brother showed up at my door, askin’ me for help. We had to gank some ghost that was killin’ unfaithful dudes but before Monday, cause I had an interview for law school. We got back in time and Jess had made cookies. I thought she’d gone to bed or was spending the night out with friends, so I just laid down on the bed. I was exhausted and dirty and just wanted a nap. But what happens, what do I feel but  _ blood _ dripping down on my head. I open my eyes and there she is. Pinned up to the ceiling right above my head, stone-cold dead, killed by a demon. She explodes in fire and I would’a died if Dean didn’t have some hunch and turn his damn car around. He dragged me out of that house, just like he did when he was four and Mom burned. That enough  _ information _ for you!?” Sam spat the words as though they were throwing knives, flying out to impale anyone who tried to interrupt his story. 

Gabe stared at him, white-faced and stunned. “Did you say you killed a  _ ghost _ ? That your girl was killed by a  _ demon _ ?”

“God-fucking-dammit!” Sam pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “Why was  _ that _ what you got out of that story?”

“What did you expect me to do? Pity you that Momma and your girl died in fires and apparently you think demons did it and that it’s possible to kill ghosts? They’re already dead, you know.”

“Well, so are demons but they can die,” Sam muttered. Gabe shook his head, positive that the man was nuts.

“Alright, so you’re delusional. Good to know.”

“Yeah, that’s about the reaction I would have expected.”

“Alright, well, I’m gonna let you go to sleep.” Gabe turned away and moved to check Raphael’s vitals. Through all the yelling, the man somehow never woke up. “You’re gonna sleep and heal, then I’m either tossin’ you in a mental ward or givin’ you back to your brother, who’s probably used to dealing with your psycho.”

“Well, might as well tell ya this one. Last time I was in a hospital, I was hallucinating Lucifer. The real one, not your unfortunately-named brother.”

Gabe shook his head with a disbelieving sigh. “I have two kid brothers to take care of. Go to sleep, I’ll check on you later before I go to bed myself. It’s getting late and I’m too tired to deal with this.”

“Oh yeah, nocturnal,” Sam cracked a grin. “But why’re your brothers here? What about your parents?”

“They’re only here for the week, up until this Christmas party Mom ‘n Dad’re havin’. There’s alcohol involved and the kid crew can’t be there so one of the older siblings is watching them. With Raph bein’ this hurt, I’m not lettin’ him go, so I’m planning on offering to take them. It’s my little sister Lily’s turn this year, but only the second adult Christmas she’s been able to go to. But if Raph isn’t gonna be there cause he’s hurt and I’m not gonna be there ‘cause I’m watchin’ him and maybe you, I might as well take the kids.”

“So if I’m still around by then, the house’ll have a couple kids inside? How many?”

“Well, mostly my neices and nephews, but we’ve got a couple siblings that aren’t 21 yet. You can expect at least 16 to be here. I don’t know if… If one of my brothers is gonna leave his boys with me.”

“Why not?”

“You could say that he’s not a big fan. We had a… Falling out a few years back. Not on good terms. Either way, the oldest kids there’ll be 19, youngest twins, Gail and Kabaiel. Youngest there will either be older brother Adam’s daughter, Millie, or Loki’s boy, Fenrir. I can almost guarantee that Conrad and Lily won’t be there, they’re 23.”

“You said there were 22 siblings? Who all are they?”

“Can’t you just Google it? Why d’you want me to give up all the information on my family?”

“Cause I’m curious. Sue me.”

“Not a big deal, though. It’s all online. We started with the oldest two, twins Adam and Michael, who we told you about last night. Then there’s our half-sister, Hester, then twins Luce and Nick. Full sister Adina then half-brother twins, Raphael and Donatello. Donnie. Then there’s half-sister Rebecca and me and… And Loki.” Gabe’s features seemed to get tighter at the mention of his twin. “Half-sister Miriam, twins Castiel and Jimmy, half-brother Zachariah, brother Akobel, sister Lily, half-brother Conrad. Twins Gail and Kabaiel, then Tamiel, and finally, Samandriel. Kid’s 13, same age as Adam’s oldest girl, Kate. Adam and Mike are 35, Samand’s 13. The nieces and nephews are 13 to 3 months. Kate’s oldest, Fenrir, Loki’s littlest, is the youngest.”

“What are their names? If Gail and Kabaiel are the oldest gonna stay with you, that makes four siblings staying with you and 12 neices and nephews.”

“Well, look at that, you can do math,” Gabe teased. “Well Adam and his wife, Naomi, had two girls, Kate and Millie, who are 13 and 1. Mike and Allie have two, Josiah and Hannah, 11 and 9. Hester’s married, but she and her wife haven’t looked into adoption. Nick’s son, Teddy, is 12 and Luci’s kids, Jane and Jack, are 8 and 3. Adina’s boy, Theo, is 4, Raph doesn’t have kids. Donnie and his husband, Ben, adopted Anna and Hozai, 6 and 2. Becca and Elijah don’t have kids and neither do I. Loki’s got three. Fenrir, Sleipnir, and Narfi. Sleip’s 3, Narfi’s 18 months, Fenrir’s 3 months.”

“Weird names. Is he married, you didn’t mention a wife for him.”

“Yeah, Lok’s got a thing about people named after deities, mostly Norse. Mostly ‘cause he’s named after the Norse god, Loki-

“A Trickster, yeah. I know mythology. Fenrir, Sleipnir, and Narfi were some of his kids, right?”

“Yeah. I’m just hoping he doesn’t end up with a daughter he names Hel. But no, he’s not married. He was… He’s not interested in marriage. Gets around, knocks a girl up, takes the kid off her hands. Continuing, because I’m not talking about Loki, is Miriam. She’s not married, neither is Cas, and both don’t have kids. Jimmy’s married, though, and he and his wife, Amelia, have a 4 year-old named Claire. Zach doesn’t have anyone either, but Akobel married this girl, Lily, and has a stepdaughter, May, who’s 5.”

“He married a girl with the same name as his sister?”

“Yeah, but I’m not too surprised. It’s a ginormous family and honestly, we’d have more if we didn’t all have such weird names. But yeah, that’s all the kids. Now you know all our names, ya happy or do I have to answer more questions before I go to bed?”

“I-” A flash of guilt went through Sam. This guy was probably exhausted, spending all night taking care of him. “Yeah, I’m done. You can, you can go to bed. I’ll probably try to sleep some more too.”

“Good. At points through the day, Samands and Tammy might come in. They’ll only be taking vitals. Don’t talk to them unless they talk to you, ya hear? I don’t want you to fuck with my baby brothers.”

“You sound like Dean,” Sam chuckled. “All overprotective and all.”

“Those’re my boys,” Gabe told him. “They’re my responsibility right now and I keep my boys safe. We all keep each other safe.”

With that, he left Sam on his own to fall asleep. He locked the door behind him, the only exit, just to ensure that, should the injured man somehow get on his feet, he wouldn’t be able to leave. No matter what, Sam was his patient and he wasn’t going to let him leave until he was sure the man was ready.

“Mornin’, boys,” Gabe greeted as he walked into the living room, where Samandriel and Tamiel were watching some cartoon.

“Morning, Gabe,” Samandriel answered. Tamiel only looked up and waved. Gabe didn’t say anything, but the boy’s eyes were still red and puffy. He noticed a half-eaten bowl of cereal was on the coffee table, along with half a poptart. “You were in there a while.”

“Yeah, we got to talkin’. You tell Tammy anything?”

“Just what I know.”

“Alrighty,” Gabe flopped on the couch, next to Tamiel. “Well, I’l tell you two the whole story.”

The man recounted the events of the night, perhaps downplaying some of the gory details for the two teens’ benefit. They  _ were _ kids, afterall. He also relayed some of what had occurred that morning, minus the weirder details- Sam’s ghost, demon, and Satan sightings. That was too weird and he wanted to figure those out himself before telling kids about it. But they were his brothers and they deserved to know what happened to theirs.

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go to bed,” Gabe sighed after he finished his story and answered questions. He stood up and stretched. “I’m exhausted. I’m usually in bed at like, 9, not 10:30.”

“Go to sleep, ya vampire,” Samandriel teased. “We’ll be fine.”

“Alright. Night, boys. I’ll be up before you go to bed, probably.” With that, Gabe leaned down and kissed his baby brothers’ foreheads, then went to bed.

That night, he woke up late. He laid there, staring at his alarm clock dully. His limbs felt heavy and he couldn’t bring himself to move.

_ I need to get up _ , he thought.  _ Gotta check on Raph. And Sam _ .

Despite this, he couldn’t. He could barely force himself to turn his head.

He stayed like this for another two hours. It wasn’t four, like the day before, but it was still a while. He did, however, manage to force his heavy limbs up to pull a shirt over his head and troop out to the living room, where he found his brothers.

“Hey Gabe,” Tamiel greeted. “We made dinner, want some?”

“Sure,” Gabe grunted. “Beats toast.”

Samandriel heated up a plate of spaghetti as Gabe slumped on the couch.

“Did you check on the guys in the clinic?”

“Yeah. That Sam guy woke up at one point while we were in there. He didn’t say much.”

“Raph?”

“He didn’t wake up that we know of. We checked their vitals like you told us, they seemed all good.”

“Alright, thanks guys.” Samandriel brought out the plate and Gabe nodded his thanks, eating slowly. “I’m gonna check on them again then get to work. I didn’t get hardly anything done last night because of them, so I’m gonna get an early start tonight. Make sure you get to bed at a decent hour, okay? Try to make sure Gunner comes in and eats and that someone takes Richard and Milo out. They haven’t been outside all night, so I’ll take them out now, but they’ll need to go out again.”

“Okay, we’ll take care of it.”

“Good, thank you.” By now, Gabe had finished his plate of food. He rinsed it off and set it on the rack to dry. He then whistled, sharp and loud, as he moved to a cabinet by his door. Moments later, he heard multiple sets of claws clicking against the hardwood floors of the hallway and soon, his two dogs came around the corner, big puppy smiles on their faces. He smiled at them as he clipped their leashes on, taking them outside to his yard.

The man and dogs went around to the backyard and Gabe unclipped the dogs’ leashes, grabbing a tennis ball off the back porch and throwing it, laughing as the corgi and jack russell terrier pelted away after it. He accepted the slobbery ball from one of them and threw it again, repeating this process. At some point during it, a fluffy gray shape came trotting around the corner of the house and settled by Gabe’s feet.

“Oh, hi, Gunner,” He murmured, crouching down and scratching the cat’s head. Almost immediately, the cat began purring, pushing his face against Gabe’s hand. The furry creature began rubbing his cheek against Gabe’s hand and the man picked him up, putting the cat’s head and front legs over his shoulder, supporting his backside with one hand as he petted along the cat’s spine with the other. It was like this that he threw the dogs’ ball, chuckling as he watched them run on stumpy legs. Eventually, he clipped the two back on their leashes and took them and the cat back to the house. He put Gunner in the house then led the dogs away, taking them on a walk.

About 20 minutes later, he returned home and took the dogs’ leashes off, releasing them to run off and find their food bowls. He replaced the leashes in their spot in the cabinet then went to check on his patients. 

They were still asleep and making sure everything was as it should be didn’t take very long. He went to his office afterwards, working for a while. He didn’t have anything big going on right now, surprising considering the proximity to Christmas. Usually around this time, he’d be getting email after email from companies begging for security updates to protect them from hackers trying to steal credit card information.

How ironic, Gabe thought. Companies asking a hacker for protection from hackers. Granted, his protection was good. Frighteningly good. He’d not heard of anyone cracking through. He smirked as he clicked through his notifications. Somebody had tried to get in his home server. They thought it was easy. That idiot had learned their lesson.

See, Gabe had protected his server with something called a honey pot. It basically seemed like the server was poorly protected, causing some overconfident hacker to try to get in. However, he had much stronger encryption than first seen and, because he was Gabriel Novak and couldn’t resist teaching people lessons on trying to get into people’s stuff, there was another defensive method.

His encryption was designed to be a maze that someone wouldn’t realize they were going through until it was too late. While they were wandering their way around the maze, Gabe’s system would be getting into theirs, searching for a very specific set of information- passwords, IP addresses, anything that would make it easier for Gabe to get in. Not that he would need the help, but it sped the process along. Then, once the information was taken, Gabe’s system got out and sent a notification. If the failed attacker hadn’t already given up on getting in, they were booted out. Then, it was all up to a waiting game of when Gabe would see the notification and go after them. Being the vengeful asshole he was, Gabe wasn’t satisfied with just tricking an attempted attacker. 

“Time to learn your lesson, huh?” He muttered as he scanned the information his system had given him. A wolfish grin took over as he got to work.

It was  _ pathetically _ easy to get in. It was obviously an amateur, which made a pout take over. He couldn’t destroy an amateur, a beginner. Pity. If only it was someone with more experience. This guy was just misguided, whoever they were.

Although, he could still teach them a lesson. He released one of his viruses, a minor one he’d made a while ago to ravage their system in retribution. This much, they deserved. They tried to fuck with his system, so he’d fuck with theirs. It was only fair. And fun.

“Hey, Dick,” Gabe greeted as his corgi, Richard, waddled through the hardly-opened door. “Come here.” He pulled the dog onto his lap to watch as the virus took effect on the system, backing out a little while later. He had other work to do.

He didn’t have any big projects right now, with the lack of companies asking for his help. He didn’t have anything coming in on the less…  _ Legal _ side of things either, so he was starting his own projects, things he’d been meaning to get around to.

Like development.

Gabe, for some reason, loved creating viruses. He drew strange, cruel delight at seeing his prototypes destroying his virtual machines. One thing he liked better was rebuilding the machines after the virus had taken them down. It could be why he’d picked his current career to be in the cybersecurity field, because he could see how something so logical and well-crafted could be taken down then remade.

Sometimes, he felt like a god. He created his own VMWare and destroyed then rebuilt it. It felt almost biblical to him. Although, he didn’t know much about religion, nor did he care to. That would be Michael’s thing, given that he’d taken a couple world religion courses in college.

At some point, Richard left. Later, Gabe secured and shut his system down, making sure to leave the desk fan he had on. His equipment tended to overheat without it and he hadn’t gotten around to fixing it yet.

He went back to the clinic and found that Raphael had woken up. He chatted with his brother until he’d fallen back asleep, then walked out to the living room to take a break and maybe hang out with the animals, if they came around. Expecting the room to be empty, he was surprised to find a shape huddled under blankets when he turned on the light.

“Uh, hey Tam,” He greeted, taking a set next to his little brother. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” The teen replied softly, his voice rough.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“That’s fine.” He slung an arm around the back of the couch and leaned back. “Mind if I turn on a movie?”

“No, you’re okay.”

“Cool.” Gabe turned the TV on and flipped through movies before picking Drumline.

“Isn’t this like, as old as I am?”

“It was only made in 2002. You were like, 6.”

“Close enough.”

At some point during the movie, which Gabe only watched for the music at this point, Tamiel shuffled to lay his head on his brother’s lap. Gabe automatically moved to run a hand through the teen’s short-cropped hair.

“Why do they throw their sticks?” Tam asked at one point.

“I’m not sure. I think it’s supposed to make them look cool. Or a drumline’s version of a mic drop.”

“Hmm.” After a few minutes silence, “Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

“Has anything like this ever happened to you?”

“Like what?”

“ _ This _ . Someone cheating on you.”

“Well… Short answer is yes, I have. But the context is a long story I don’t usually tell without drinking way too much alcohol, which I don’t plan to do with you and Sammy around.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why don’t you tell it?”

“... It’s related to Loki.”

“Oh. Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

“Why does this hurt so much?”

Gabe took a few seconds to answer that one. “It’s cause you’re human. Cause you feel. And because it was your first girlfriend.”

“I don’t get why she would do that. I mean, I really, really liked her. And she… She didn’t even seem too sorry about it, like she was caught cheating on a test, not her boyfriend. I mean, I only found her blowin’ some guy behind the school, not a big deal, right?” The last sentence was said sarcastically, but Gabe could still hear the hurt lingering in Tamiel’s voice.

“I don’t know. I don’t get why people cheat on others, one at a time if that’s what’s expected from both parties. But you know what?”

“What?”

“There’s this ice cream place a few minutes from here that’s open around now. You wanna go, Mount Tam?” Gabe used a nickname he’d given his little brother back when he was a toddler. He thought the nostalgia might be nice for the teen.

“Do I have to get dressed?”

“You wearing a shirt and pants?”

“Yeah.

“Then no, just get shoes on and we can go.”

“Okay. Give me a few minutes.”

Tam emerged from under the blankets in fuzzy Captain America pajama pants Gabe recognized as the ones he’d given him for his birthday the year before and a t-shirt. Gabriel himself was in jeans and a fitted blue long-sleeve shirt. The two left after ensuring that Samandriel, Raphael, and Sam were all asleep, Gabe leading Tam to his cherry red Corvette. Unlike much of his family, it was the only car he owned. Not for money’s sake, but simply that he didn’t see the need to own more than one car when he was the only person living in the house. It was flashy, sure, but when Gabe emerged from his house, he was all about flashy.

The drive only took a few minutes, filled with silence. Tam didn’t speak and though Gabe usually drove with the radio on, it was turned down. 

“Hey, Gabriel!” One of the workers greeted. “It’s been a while, we were getting worried.”

“Sorry about that, Kim,” Gabe replied. “It probably would have been longer, we’re not just here to satisfy my sweet-tooth.”

“Alrighty, what can I get you?”

Tamiel got a couple scoops of zebra stripes ice cream with sprinkles while Gabe, in Tam’s opinion, got a monstrosity. It was two scoops of chocolate and a scoop of some multicolored ice cream called Superman but he also got chocolate syrup, gummy bears, and sprinkles. Kim looked somewhat concerned when he ordered it.

“Are you doing okay, Gabe?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.  _ Really _ .” He insisted when Kim gave him a dubious look. “This ice cream trip isn’t about me.”

“Fine, fine.” Kim gave them their ice creams and Tam immediately took a bite of his savoring the flavor. He hadn’t had ice cream in a while.

“Why’d she ask if you were okay?” He asked as they sat down.

“This is my bad-day order,” Gabe explained. “I’ve been… Having problems for the past few weeks.”

“What kind of problems?”

“I don’t know if that’s really much of your business.”

“Gabe, come on-"

“Really, Tam. Drop it.”

“Fine,” The teen huffed. “Well, I’ve been having problems too, not really related to…  _ her. _ ”

“What kind of problems?”

“One of my friends, he’s acting really weird. Like, he’s been wearing hoodies since the beginning of the school year and he hardly talks. He doesn’t eat much, either, and kinda just stares off into the distance, tuning out for no reason. We went swimming a bit ago and he didn’t want to go, but he  _ loves _ swimming. He doesn’t even draw anymore but he’s always drawing.”

“And?”

“And what do you think I should do? I’m kinda worried about him, he’s never like this. And he’s been like this for months.”

“Hmm,” Gabe chewed on his plastic spoon thoughtfully. “Well, I’m not that kind of doctor, but it sounds to me like some symptoms of depression.”

“Depression? Really? I don’t think he’d be depressed, his home life is just fine.”

“Well, anyone can be depressed,” Gabe countered gently. “I am. On medication for it too.”

“Wait, wait.” Tam held his hands up. “Hold up,  _ you _ ? But how? You’re always cracking jokes, you’re always smiling!”

“That’s because you only see me when I’m not low. When I get low, I hide out more in my house than usual. I don’t get out of bed well, sometimes just laying there for hours. Yesterday, I only managed to get up around midnight. Believe it or not, but I’m actually dealing with lows right now.”

“That doesn’t… How, though? You…”

“I’m not really willing to go into that over ice cream, but I will give you advice on your friend.”

“Like how to help him?”

“Yeah. There’s actually not much you can do, in my experience, because it’s all mental. When your brain tells you something, it tends to block out anything someone else tells you. Best thing I can tell you is to be there for him. It’s terrible, I know, but it’s all you can do. Depression, for me, is best described as emptiness. He feels empty right now and there’s not much to do about that, which actually sucks. Try to talk to him, see if he wants to ask his parents about therapy or meds, but he may already have and they’re just trying to figure something out right now.”

“Okay. Thanks, Gabe.”

“No problem, kiddo.”

The two ate some more of their ice cream, a comfortable silence falling over them, broken by Tamiel’s nex question.

“Why _ don’t _ you and Loki talk?”

Gabe froze, his spoon halfway to his mouth. He lowered it slowly. “That’s a really long story, kid.”

“I’ve got time.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell you all of it. There are parts that… I can’t even think about without getting piss-ass drunk.”

What was meant to discourage Tam was only making him more curious.

“I mean, I hardly remember you guys saying more than like, two words to each other.”

“That's cause we really haven’t. Not since you were like, eight. It didn’t used to be like that.” Gabe sighed. “I don’t know if you really want me telling you this.”

“Just say what you can.”

“Well… Loki and I, we… We were always close. Closer than Jimmy and Cas.”

“Wow,” Tam breathed.

“Yeah. We stayed close, always doing everything the other did. If one got in trouble and had some punishment, the other would accept the punishment too. Not because we forced each other to, it just felt wrong if one of us had to go through a punishment and the other didn’t. Besides, we usually deserved it. Most of the stuff we got up to, we got up to together.

“But anyways, we were really close, right up until… I think it was when we were 19. We were in college, went to this bar to celebrate finishing our finals, and used fake IDs from Adam and Hester to get in. While we were there, I was hangin’ around some girls and Loki… He’d found this dude. We knew that he wasn’t exactly straight, he’d had a few flings with guys in the last two years back then, but the guys usually approached him. Me too, but I would point them to the twin that was more interested. It’s not that I’m not, I just prefer girls. Not the point,” Gabe took another bite of his melting ice cream to pause for a few seconds.

“This guy, he was a lot older than us. Not college-age, that’s for sure. I don’t think I ever really found out how much older he was, but that didn’t matter. Not to Loki. See, he liked him. He didn’t talk to him the first time we saw him, but he dragged me back to that bar a few times to try to catch sight of him. Eventually, I think the third time we saw him, Lo got his name. Odin.

“They traded phone numbers and really hit it off. LoLo was really happy, so I was happy for him. But… Then he started changing.” A frown crossed Gabe’s face. “The next school year, we were still in the same dorms, but I saw him less. He became more studious, which wasn’t a problem since he was pre-law, but when he wasn’t in the library or staying up late studying in our room, he was staying with Odin. It started with Loki seeing him every so often, then once a week, then almost every day. He began staying the night at Odin’s, sometimes not coming back to the dorm for days at a time. He was drifting, talking to me less, not answering my texts. If you saw us, you wouldn’t have known we’d been so close just months earlier.

“At one point, I caught him packing his stuff up. He said he was moving out of the dorm and into Odin’s place. This was our first fight about the dude. I said he was moving too fast, he said I needed to stay out of his business. He would date who he wanted to date and it didn’t matter what I thought. He left that night and that dorm never felt so empty. I was… I couldn’t sleep so I went to a bar, a different one. I think it was a strip club but I don’t remember. All I know is that I brought two girls home, got drunk off my ass, and woke up with the worst hangover while Becca and Donnie dumped ice water on me, Raph telling the girls to go. Apparently, me and Lo had planned a night with the Turtles and Bec and in the midst of our fight, both of us had forgotten about it and didn’t show. Donnie had picked the lock of our dorm that morning after not getting an answer from either of our cell phones to find- You know, you don’t need to hear about that.”

“Ew,” Tam mumbled past a mouthful of ice cream.

“Exactly. Anyway, they dragged the story out of me, whatever they could get between the splitting migraine and constant puking. I probably was on the verge of alcohol poisoning, to be totally honest. While that fight hadn’t been our worst, it was pretty up there and I tend…  _ Tended _ to drink a lot after one of our fights. Bad coping habit, I know, but it didn’t last.

“It was the next year. We were 22 by now and Loki had pretty much cut contact from the family. He still attended events, keeping up appearances and all that, but he rarely texted, almost never called. He… He was late to our birthday party that year and he’d always been a party animal. Luce and Nick had promised strippers and he’d never been less enthusiastic about them, not that I’d ever seen. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was probably being faithful to Odin. All I could see was that the son of a bitch was changing my brother into someone I didn’t recognize and I didn’t like it. It took another month, but I eventually got Loki alone and… And I told him. I said I didn’t like Odin. I’d been trying to give him chance after chance for years and all he did, in my mind, was ruin more and more. We had… It was our worst fight up to that point. Ever.

“It ended up with me storming out and going to Nick’s. Becca had told Nick what had happened last time and he made me promise to come to him if we fought. So I went to him and drank and ranted and raved all night. There was no way I could drink as much with Nick and Kelly around and we knew that there would be at least one sober adult in the house- She was about to have Jane, maybe a month away from the kid being born. Next day, I wake up hungover, somehow make it back home and…” 

Gabe paused again and let out a shaky breath. “At some point in the night, someone had killed Odin. Loki hadn’t gone straight back to their apartment, choosing to drive to some bridge or stretch of the woods or  _ somewhere _ to cool off. He didn’t want to go home angry, that’s what Hester said he’d told her. It ended up being nearly morning when he got home and when he opened the door, there he was. Shot dead, three times. Two in the head, one in the chest. He’d been asleep and his blood had stained the mattress. I don’t know why that’s one of the details I remember, but it is. Nick called me that night, told me Odin was dead. I went to sleep in my own bed and…"

Gabe paused to clear his throat and took a few shallow, shaking breaths. When he continued, his voice was choked and broken. 

"And I woke up to Loki's hands around my neck. It was terrifying, you know, seeing myself trying to kill you. We looked even more alike back then than we do now, I think. I got him off and we fought. It was the worst fight we've ever had. The worst fight I've ever seen. You didn't see them much, but Michael and Lucifer fought, a lot. Their fights were explosive and dangerous and nobody liked getting in the middle ground. But those were nothing compared to that night."

He ran a hand down his face and sniffled. 

"Even after all this time, I still can't hardly think about it without getting drunk as hell. What we said to each other, what we did… Our closeness was a curse then cause we knew exactly where the other's soft spots were and how to cut right to the quick. Neither of us was thinking straight. I was still hungover and he was crazy with grief. He… He accused me of ordering the hit on Odin. He thought that I'd been so pissed after our fight the night before that I wanted Odin dead, that I'd ordered him to be killed. And he was so messed up that he tried to kill me in retribution. And in the fighting, some of the stuff we said- that  _ I  _ said- it makes me want to puke, thinking about it. 

"Now this, everything afterward, I've been told through the siblings. I haven't had an actual conversation with Loki since it happened. He apparently secluded himself for quite a while after the funeral, refused to even look at anyone for years. The first time he did, that I’ve been told, it was at some bar Donnie and Ben dragged him to. He kissed this girl once and left, telling them he needed air. Ben found him later curled in a ball next to the side of the building. He wasn’t crying, but he wasn’t okay. Then, nine months later, he announced that he had a son. Sleipnir. The kid was a newborn, his mom was the girl from the bar. She had him, dumped him on Lok, and left. Far as I know, he’s not seen her since. Just after that, I’d started a thing with this girl, Kali. Now, I don’t date. I don’t sleep around much. That had always been Loki’s thing and he’d kinda stopped. Kali was the first in… A while. I thought we were going good, going strong. It was only a few months and we were happy, I thought. Then I got a text one night from her, saying that she was breaking it off and was currently screwing my twin. The next time I saw him, some family event and the entire family was there, nieces and nephews too, it was the second time I met Sleipnir. I just looked at him, Kali hanging off his arm, and just asked why and left.”

“I think I remember that. Sleip was only like, six months, right? That would have been around when Donnie and Ben announced they were adopting Anna.”

“Yeah, I think that’s when it was. Anyway, you remember a few months after, Kali announced she was pregnant?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know much about it. All I know is that she was pregnant but then she vanished. Nobody told me anything cause I was 13 and ‘too young’ to worry about it.” Tamiel used air quotes and Gabe, despite himself, smiled a little.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know much either but she was apparently about six months along and miscarried. I was told she almost didn’t make it and ended things with Loki over text, like she did with me. Loki finally went back to his sleeping around, but was pretty responsible about it, always making sure someone was watching Sleipnir. It was never me though, but I did get told who had him and I would go over and watch him during the night so they could sleep. I don’t think Lo knew, but if he did, he didn’t say anything. Then Sleipnir was a little over two when he brought baby Narfi home, saying that his mother wasn’t in the picture either. The next time I saw Loki for longer than a glance at a gala was actually for Dad’s next hosted event. I don’t remember what it was, just that there was alcohol and everyone under 21 wasn’t allowed. At that point, it was everyone from Gail down, minus Millie, Hozai, and Fenrir. I think. Not the point. I was the one watching everyone, it was my turn in the cycle, and Loki was there to drop his boys first, before anyone else got there. I think it was an accident and he’d overestimated the amount of time it would take to get to my place. But there he was, Sleip in his arms and Narfi in a carrier. We kinda stared at each other awkwardly and he asked if he could come in. I let him, of course, and he had the baby stuff in a backpack that he dropped next to the playpen I got from Adina the day before. It was all awkward and he pretty much dropped the kids off then left before either of us could bring up a topic that wasn’t about them. But it was still the most I’d said to him in seven goddamn years.”

Gabe pushed the melted remains of ice cream away and leaned his elbows against the table, forehead resting on his fists. “It’s pride, really, that’s keeping us apart at this point. I know I should try to talk to him, but what would I say? I’m sorry you thought I wanted to kill your sugar daddy? I wanted to contact you after you tried to kill me but I thought you should stew and realize what you did wrong and come suck up to me, since I was innocent in the whole situation?” He shook his head. “Tammy, I wasn’t innocent in it. I was still an asshole to him, I could have contacted him, and now it’s probably too late to try to fix anything. Dammit, I just want my brother back.” This last part was said in such a low, broken voice that Tam wasn’t sure he was meant to hear it. He reached forward to awkwardly pat his brother on his shoulder. Gabe though, sat back and sniffed. 

“Now look at you, you got the old man breakin’ down.  _ I’m _ supposed to be the one comforting  _ you _ after your big breakup, not the other way around with me gettin’ weepy about long past issues.”

“Well, I mean, getting my mind off of her.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that works.” Gabe rubbed his nose and shook his head. “I’m done. You wanna go back home now?”

“Sure.”

They drove back in silence, Gabe too absorbed in his thoughts to start up conversation. Tamiel went to bed when they got home, wishing his brother a good night. Gabe hardly acknowledged him, instead going down to the basement, finding a bottle of whiskey that wasn’t as dusty as it should have been, considering how long he’d had it. He stared at it, gaze dull, for a few seconds before shrugging and finding a glass. He opened the bottle and sat back in an old wooden rocking chair, pouring his first glass of the night. 

His eyes matched the color of his drink as he tossed it back, starting off slow but quickly picking up speed, practically chugging the bottle. 

He refused to acknowledge the fact that he knew this was a problem, the way he dealt with remembering the awful way his relationship with his twin, the one person he’d been with since before birth, had shattered into irreparable pieces. Just like how he refused to acknowledge the tears crawling down his cheeks.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, Sam woke up in the clinic. He'd gotten used to that fairly quickly, despite it only being the start of his second full day there. 

Or was it longer? He wasn't sure, the lamia venom had messed up his internal clock. 

He tried to sit up and was surprised to find that he didn't hurt nearly as bad and he wasn't as stiff. He lifted his shirt to peel away the bandages and look at the wound. Maybe it had been longer than he thought. Much to his disappointment, however, the deep gashes still looked fairly recent. Considering that his head did feel somewhat fuzzy, he chalked his lack of pain to Gabriel drugging him in his sleep. He wouldn't be surprised, given what he knew about the man. 

And his threats. 

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the clinic door opening. In walked a teenager that looked exhausted. He had that look, in his eyes. It was familiar to Sam. He and Dean had it too. 

"Hi," The teen greeted as he saw Sam sitting up. 

"Hey," Sam's voice was kind of rough. "Can I have some water?"

"Sure." The teen found a water bottle and opened it, passing it to Sam, who took a deep drink from it. 

"Rough night?" He asked as he lowered the bottle. The teen flopped on one of the chairs with a sigh. 

"You could say that. Hey, have you ever had a bad breakup, like catching your girlfriend cheating on you?"

"That's… kind of personal. But no, can't say that I have. Last long-term relationship I had, she ended up getting killed."

"Oh, I'm… I'm sorry."

"It's fine. She died years ago."

"Still, that… One of my brothers was in a relationship and the guy got killed. I don't think he's really moved on, even now. He's got kids, but I don't think he's really… Over it."

"It takes a while," Sam murmured, thoughts moving to Jess. He hadn't thought of her in a while, usually just a passing thought as he fell asleep. He had been so busy lately, with… everything. The leviathans, Cassiel dying… He rarely got a spare moment to think about Jess. Her smile, her laugh… He was surprised by how much his heart still hurt. "How long ago?"

"8 years. You?"

"7."

The two sat in contemplative silence for a while. 

"I'm Tamiel, by the way," the teen introduced. 

"Sam. What time is it?"

"About 9. In the afternoon."

"You nocturnal like Gabriel?" Sam couldn't think of any other reason Tamiel would look so exhausted at 9 at night. He'd have been awake all day otherwise.

"No, I just didn't get to sleep till like, 5 AM. I woke up at 3 but me and my little brother just sat around watching movies all day. We checked on you and Raphael earlier, but neither of you were up."

"Your little brother's Samandriel, right?" Nod. "What's up with your family and weird names? You and Samandriel, then wasn't there some guy named Akobel? And another was named Lucifer?"

"We didn't pick our names, especially Luce," Tamiel shrugged. "You'd have to ask our parents." He then stood up. "Gabe wanted us to check vitals and all that. He taught us how, a little while ago."

He moved to Raphael first, doing whatever it was you did to check vitals. Sam didn't know, he and Dean usually just made sure hearts were debating and they were breathing. Tamiel then moved to him, doing presumably the same things. Sam let him, moving when he asked him to. Neither of them spoke much for a while. It had been quite some time since Sam had interacted with anyone under the age of 21. 

"So where is Gabriel?" Sam asked. "Isn't he usually up by now?"

"He is, but we're not quite sure where he's at. His car is in the driveway, but he's not in his room or office."

Sam caught the undertones of worry in the teen's voice. 

"But?"

"But… what?"

"You think something's wrong, don't you? You're worried."

Tamiel fixed his with a slightly confused or intimidated gaze. Possibly both. "How can you tell?"

"It's in your voice. And the way you're sitting. You tensed when I brought Gabriel up and you started playing with your hands."

"Oh," Tamiel looked away for a bit. "I… It's probably got something to do with last night."

"Last night?"

"We went out for ice cream. I couldn't sleep and Gabe came out from his office and I was on the couch. We went out for ice cream and we talked about my… my ex and…" He paused with a sigh. "And his brother. His twin. Loki."

"We are not talking about him right now," A gravelly voice came from the direction of the door and the two turned to see Gabriel leaning on the doorframe, a mug in his hands. 

He looked  _ awful _ . He had bags under his eyes, his hair was a mess, and he wore an oversized hoodie and rumpled jeans. 

To Sam, he was obviously hungover. He squinted at the bright florescent lights of the clinic and turned them down as he walked in. 

"Are you okay?" Tamiel asked. Gabriel sighed. 

"I told you I don't like talking about him. Or what happened. And I'm definitely not in the mood right now since I've spent the last half hour puking my guts out "

"Drinking's not a good way to deal with your problems," Sam chided gently. 

"Yeah?" Gabriel shifted his gaze to the man, some emotion Sam couldn't decipher lingering his eyes. "Say that next time  _ yo _ ur brother tries to kill you."

"Say that next time you're forced to watch your brother die, repeating the same day different ways, over a hundred times after he's sold his soul to bring you back to life and only has a few months left to live." Sam shot back. "Next time your dying father tells your brother to kill you because you might turn into a monster. Next time you actually turn  _ into  _ said monster and your brother sees and the horror in his eyes makes you want to kill yourself. Call me then, I'll have some advice for you."

Tamiel and Gabriel stared at him in muted horror. 

"I told you, you would never believe what my life is like. Enjoy the fact that you don't have to deal with what I do and let’s change the subject.

"Well…" Gabriel took a sip from his mug and sighed. "Sammy said he was probably gonna go to bed soon. Tam, I want you in bed by midnight tonight, okay? You were up way too late last night."

"I'm probably not gonna be up by 11, so that's fine."

"What happened yesterday?" Sam asked. "I think I was asleep."

"I did work, attacked some idiot's server, then me and Tam went out for ice cream and got into some heavy stuff."

"Heavy stuff that drove you to drinking?"

Gabriel fixed Sam with a glare that said 'I'm so done with you.' "You have no right to judge unless you know the story. You, of all people, do not need to know. It is not your place and it is not the kind of bedtime story you tell your kids. You will not be hearing it from me and Tamiel, don't let me catch you talking about it with him. You can tell Sammy if you want, but not around me."

"Alright, that's confusing. My brother calls me Sammy."

"Tough, cause Samandriel is Sammy here. You came after in my eyes." Apparently, hungover Gabriel had zero time or patience for anyone's shit. As he moved away, pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed and put his mug down then pulled on a pair of rubber gloves. "Alright, lemme check out your side."

Sam shifted to pull his t-shirt up and exposed the bandages, choosing not to comment on the man's sanitary choices. He and Dean had done worse. He'd replaced the bandages in place after he looked at the wound himself. 

"Lie down," Gabriel grumbled. Sam obeyed and the shorter man removed the bandages completely. A slight frown crossed his face and he grabbed a clear bottle. Sam couldn't see the label. "This will probably sting," He warned as he wet a cotton ball. He started patting the cotton against the gashes gently, the pain of it causing Sam’s face to twist. He didn’t feel the pressure of the cotton ball thanks to Gabriel’s light touch, but the liquid- Sam thought rubbing alcohol- hurt pretty bad, simply on principle of it being alcohol.

Gabe hummed to himself as he worked on the healing gashes. They were ugly and scabbed over, but they looked a lot better than when the venom was taking effect only two nights ago. That had worried  _ him _ and he’d dealt with a lot of gruesome sights when he worked in the ER. He’d had a strong stomach and was able to focus for long periods of time and worked well under pressure, so the nurses tended to call on him for tough cases.

He’d also had a lot of people die on his table. “Tough case” in an ER usually meant there was little chance of survival. Tough cases were almost always the worst of wounds. But not always, sometimes there were resistant patients. That was always  _ fun _ , getting called on to stab someone with a needle. 

"So, what's the verdict, doc?" Sam asked, snapping Gabe from his thoughts.

“You’ll live,” Gabe replied. “Still not pretty and you’ll probably scar pretty bad, but you’ll be fine, overall.”

_ Not pretty _ was a bit of an understatement. The wounds were absolutely ugly, as wounds went, especially with the edges getting red and puffy. He’d have to watch that. 

“Fun,” Sam murmured.

“What’s fun?”

The question came from the other side of the room, catching everyone off guard.

“Lay the  _ fuck _ back down!” Gabe snapped as he hurried to Raphael’s side, the injured man trying, and failing, to sit up. “You should know by now not to do that.”

“You’d think.”

“I’m gonna get you guys something to eat,” Tam suggested. Shame pushed its way through Gabe- he’d not thought to give either of them something to eat since they’d gotten there. What kind of stupid was that? And he called himself a doctor.

Tam returned quickly, followed by Samandriel. Gabe was just finishing redressing Raphael’s wounds, noticing with relief that they looked much better than Sam’s.

The two wounded men ate as Gabe sat back, massaging his temples. Redressing wounds did nothing good for his alcohol-induced migraine, despite the lowered lights. He sipped his coffee, the now-cold liquid settling heavily in his stomach as he wrinkled his nose a little. He hated cold coffee, especially black.

“That’s your hungover look,” Raphael spoke up, catching Gabe’s attention. “Did you seriously get drunk with kids in the house?”

“It’s my fault,” Tam cut in before Gabe could reply. “I made him talk about Loki.”

“Well shit,”

The conversation was interrupted by the doorbell and Gabe groaned.

“Please, not tonight.”

“I’ll get it,” Samandriel offered.

“Hell no, sit your ass down.” Gabe growled. “Neither of you are answering the door after 9.”

“Why not? We’re big boys, we can take care of ourselves.”

“One, neither of you have a driver’s license-”

“I have my intermediate’s!”

“-And two, I don’t trust the people that show up at my door.”

“You let like, everyone in,” Raph deadpanned.

“Yeah, look where that gets me? An injured brother on one table and some guy that hallucinates Satan on another.”

“We got that fixed!” Sam protested. “The only other time was ‘cause I was being fucked with by lamia venom, I can’t control that.”

“Still Satan,” Gabe replied before leaving to finally go answer the door.

“There you are,” Jimmy grinned. “Where were you yesterday?”

“What do you mean?”

“Yesterday we rang and you didn’t answer.”

“Well, depending on the time, I was either working, out with Tam, or getting piss-ass drunk after talkin’ about Loki, so you tell me.”

“ _ You _ talked about- To  _ who _ ?”

“Tam. Lemme tell you, that kid is persistent.”

“Obviously,” Jimmy mused as Gabe led him to the clinic. “Mike can’t even get you to talk about him.”

“That’s cause Mike isn’t a 16 year-old going through a shitty breakup, eating ice cream at 3 AM, begging for distraction.”

“Who isn’t a 16 year-old goin’ through a shitty breakup, eating ice cream at 3 AM, begging for distraction?” Raph asked as the two walked in. “Hi Jimmy,”

“Definitely not me,” Tam murmured. 

“Hey,” Jimmy greeted, taking a seat on one of the tables as Gabe pulled into “doctor-mode”, as it was lovingly referred to by Nick, once again. 

“What brought you here?” Raph asked.

“I’m an idiot and my brain likes anesthetics.”

“Symptoms?” Gabe questioned as he came over.

“Cravings, obviously. Achy. I was kinda irritable earlier, anxious. Kinda nauseous, fuzzy-headed. Couldn’t sleep, either.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. I told Amelia, she and I agreed that I needed to stay away from Claire. She doesn’t need to see me like this.”

“What’re you talking about?” Samandriel asked.

“Guess which of us in the room had a drug problem?” Jimmy asked in reply. He didn’t have a problem talking about that rocky piece of his past. It was his bad decisions that brought it all on.

“Wait, seriously?” Tam asked. Gabe remembered that they were too young to remember when Jimmy had first been caught with drugs and sent to rehab when he was 17. 

“Yup. Not a pretty history, but  _ eh _ . I’m not stupid, now. I’ve got a kid and I avoid the wrong crowds. It’s damn hard sometimes, but I make my way through.”

“Then I go and fuck that up by drugging you so I can sew your leg closed,” Gabe muttered.

“Dude. It happens. I haven’t used in ages, I’ll be fine.”

“When… When did that all start?” Samandriel asked. Sam stayed silent. It wasn’t his family, wasn’t his concern, but he  _ was _ listening in interestedly.

“I started using at 15. I was an idiot when I was 15, ran with a bad crew. At first, I only used when Cas and I got in fights. It wasn’t that often and was just stupid stuff. Then I got more dependent, used whenever we had even a petty argument, then gave up trying to find a reason. Nobody in the family knew till I was 17. I got careless and got caught and after one big blowout argument-”

“You never told me about that.”

“Shit was just starting between you and Loki, we weren’t gonna say anything. Anyway, I eventually agreed to go to rehab. Got out, was clean for a couple years, then I started using again. Just after Odin, I think. Not sure. Either way, Cas had figured out my behaviors and realized I was using again pretty quick. Eventually, he convinced me to go back to rehab, get clean again... This cycle happened like, two more times before I decided I was done. Withdrawal’s a bitch and I didn’t want to have to go through it again. I’ve been mostly clean for like, five years now.”

“... Wow.” Samandriel muttered.

“Yeah. After Amelia got pregnant with Claire, we decided that I needed to clean up my act. I couldn’t exactly raise a kid well if I was addicted to drugs and worried about where I’d get my next hit.”

Gabe gave his brother a dubious look. “Who brought up that idea?”

“Me, Jesus,” Jimmy rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Seriously, our relationship is  _ fine _ . We wouldn’t have a kid otherwise.”

“That doesn’t always mean anything,” Gabe replied. “Look at my twin. Does he have a good relationship with any of the boys’ mothers?”

“I don’t know, not my business. I just watch them if he asks me to. Does that really matter right now?”

“Not really. Alright, do you have shorts? Gonna need to check out these wounds.”

“Right, right. Yeah, I brought some, I’ll go change.”

“Bathroom down the hall,” Gabe reminded his brother as the younger man left. When the door opened, a furry shape waddled in. Two, actually.

“Oh, hello,” Sam murmured in surprise when he saw the dogs. He leaned down as far as he could without pain to let one of them sniff his hand.

“Here,” Gabe bent down and picked his corgi up, putting it next to Sam on the table/bed. “His name is Richard. He’s a little Dick sometimes.”

“You so named that thing after Loki,” Raph grinned.

“He’s not a  _ thing _ and of course I did,” Gabe bent down and put his face against the corgi’s. “Don’t you see the resemblance? And when he does something wrong, I can call him a Dick without worrying about being told I’m  _ behaving inappropriately _ . It’s technically his name. And I get to imagine I’m pretending Loki has a normal name.”

“Are you still mad at him?” Jimmy asked as he came in, shirtless and in a pair of shorts that exposed the bandages on his leg. “Didn’t you say you’d be fine with him if he apologized?”

“He  _ did _ try to kill me,” Gabe reminded him as the younger man sat down. “It’s difficult to just forgive that. And that  _ was _ kind of hypothetical, he’s not exactly the type to apologize. It’s not like I was innocent in everything either and he doesn’t forgive easily.”

“You two are exactly alike,” Raph muttered.

“I know, that’s the point. Neither of us will apologize and neither of us will forgive.”

Unseen by anyone but Samandriel and Sam, Tamiel slipped his phone out of his pocket.

“So we’ll likely never talk again. But that’s not the point and we’re not having this conversation.”

“Alright, I don’t mean to pry, but what  _ happened _ between you and Loki. All I’ve heard is that he has three kids and tried to kill you-”

“We are  _ not _ having this conversation!” Gabriel snapped. “I don’t exactly  _ like _ hangovers!”

“Then why do you drink so much?” Jimmy asked.

“It’s either that or nightmares. I’ll take pain and nausea over being unable to sleep, thanks.”

“You sound like Dean,” Sam pet Richard’s head, smiling at the corgi as he settled down next to Sam’s ribs, tail wagging. “He’s borderline alcoholic. Refuses to admit he has a problem. I don’t blame him, though, he- we-” He cut himself off, unsure of how to continue. It was too recent, too fresh.

“He, we what?” Gabe asked.

“We lost a… Friend, if you could call him that,” Sam murmured. “He was real hands-off and people dying in our line of work isn’t unusual, but he and Dean… They had something. He… He’d saved Dean's life, multiple times. You know, when he was around.” Sam scratched the dog’s head, firmly avoiding looking at anybody in the room. “Dean’s not been taking it well.”

“Who’s Dean?” Tamiel asked.

“My brother."

“Alright, you’re done,” Gabriel told Jimmy after a few moment’s silence. He’d finished redressing his brother’s wounds. “Do you wanna stay here a few days, get over the worst of the withdrawal?”

“That’d be great,” The man sighed as he shrugged back into his shirt. “I can’t go back home, not right now, and I’d stay with Cas but he isn’t feeling great. Thinks it’s the flu.”

“Alright, I’ll get you set up in the bedroom upstairs. You able to manage stairs?”

“Yeah, I'll be fine.”

Gabriel helped Jimmy off the table and the two left the room, slowly due to Jimmy’s limping from the wound in his leg.

“Well, I’m gonna go to bed. Tammy, why don’t you come with me?” Samandriel stood up, Tamiel following.

“Night, guys.”

“Night,” Raph called back. Sam didn’t reply, busily petting Richard. A soft whining came from the floor and he looked over to see Gabriel’s other dog, a terrier, staring up at him.

“I can’t help you,” He told the dog. "Richard was lucky to get help from Gabriel. I can’t reach.”

“Bet that’s a problem you rarely have to deal with,” Raphael chuckled.

“It’s really not. Being bedridden after getting hurt is new too.”

“Not so much for me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Jimmy isn’t the only one with problems. I tend to be reckless, hop in the line of fire. This is one of the worst I’ve been, though.”

“Yeah, I heard Gabriel talking to you about that. What happened two years ago?”

“You really do like to pry, don’t you?”

“Uh- Sorry,” Sam realized quickly- but too late- That he’d overstepped. “Sorry, I don’t usually ask so many questions.”

“It’s fine, I just don’t talk about it to people who aren’t family.”

“Understandable.”

~

Raphael and Sam fell asleep again soon later, leaving only Gabe awake. Deciding to fight off his hangover, he didn’t even step foot near his office, making it the second day that week he’d not worked. Not enjoyable, but he’d check his email before he went to bed, just in case he had a request come in. He did, surprisingly, and responded to the email. He’d get to work on it tomorrow. Before he went to bed after making Samandriel and Tamiel pancakes, he checked on his patients.

Raph was sleeping peacefully, all vitals good. Sam, however…

Sam was restless, muttering under his breath. He had an unhealthy flush covering his cheeks and sweat beading on his brow. When Gabe took his temperature, he was feverish, causing alarm bells to ring in the doctor’s mind.

Fever in a wounded man was never good.

“Hey, Sam, wake up,” Gabe urged the man, shaking his shoulder. “Wake up, come on.”

“What?” Sam groaned drowsily. 

“I need to check something out. Stay there,” Gabe ordered. He washed his hands again- he’d need to invest in lotion by the time this was over- and grabbed supplies, snapping on rubber gloves. He then peeled back the bandages he’d just applied and rested his fingers gently against the red, puffy skin near the stitches, feeling the heat radiating from the wound, and swore.

“What?” Unease was filtering into Sam’s voice. A doctor cussing as he looked at his wounds was somewhat worrying.

“Well you, my good sir, are likely going to leave later than you thought.”

_ "What _ ?”

“It’s infected,” Gabe muttered. “I must have missed warning signs earlier, but it moved fast. It’s only been what, twelve hours maybe? That’s not long enough to get like this. What’s up with you and wounds suddenly going bad?”

“I dunno,” Sam sighed. It was obvious he wasn’t feeling well, which Gabe found understandable. He’d already had to deal with some unknown venom ravaging through him and now he had to deal with an infection. Gabe would be tired of it all too. “Usually I’m fine. I can't remember the last time I got an infection. Or even a cold.”

“Well, I guess Florida’s just unlucky for you,” 

“Yeah, you could say that,” Sam scoffed.

“Alright, this will hurt,” Gabe warned. “After I clean this up, I’m gonna need to disinfect it, try to keep the infection from getting worse.”

"Go for it," Sam groaned as Gabe began working on the festering wounds. He was surprisingly quiet as Gabe worked, but his face was scrunched, revealing the pain he was in. It couldn't be soon enough, but eventually, Gabe stepped back. The gashes were rebandaged and cleaned and, as Gabe set alarms on his phone, Sam worked to regain his bearings. 

"I'm gonna go make you something to eat," Gabe announced. "Soup sound good?"

"Sure," Sam groaned as he walked out. Gabe heated up a can of chicken noodle soup - he'd make real chicken noodle later - and brought the bowl back in for Sam, setting it down when he saw that the man had already fallen asleep. 

Or unconscious? It was hard to tell sometimes with infections. 

Gabe debated for a few seconds. Should he wake Sam or let him sleep? He'd need the rest. But he also needed nutrition. 

A decision made, Gabe set to waking the man up. It was tough, Sam very unwilling to return to consciousness, but he eventually did. Gabe helped him to a slightly more vertical position so he could eat. Soon after he finished, he drifted to unconsciousness once again and, after making sure he was sound asleep, Gabe got up and went to the supply closet. 

When Sam woke up, it was to an annoying beeping. He opened his eyes to the lights dimmed and looked around, surprised to find himself hooked up to various machines- IVs, a heart monitor…

"The hell?"

"Oh, you're up," Gabriel looked up from his seat, just outside Sam's line of sight, and stood up, setting his laptop down. 

"What's all this for?"

"You, my good sir, are not doin' so hot. Infection, paired with fever and huge holes in your side, are not your friends."

"Yeah, but… Why am I hooked up to all this?" Sam's head was fuzzy. If he could think clearly, he was sure he'd be able to figure it out himself.

"Antibiotics for infection, saline for hydration," Gabriel reached out tapped both tubes as he named them. "Painkillers. Heart monitor cause I don't like to take my chances with infection. Seen too many people go bad after we thought they were in the clear. I'm not taking that risk."

"What's a monitor gonna do to reduce risk?"

"Program set up to track you, watch for warning signs if you go bad. Alarms are set up around the house so if something happens while I'm not here, someone will know."

"Damn," Sam winced as he shifted. "You take this seriously."

"Of course I do," Gabriel fixed Sam with a level gaze. "I don't play with human lives."

"Good to know, considering you're my doctor," Sam looked around the room. "Where's Raphael?"

"Moved him to a different room where he'd be more comfortable. He's healing up pretty well. I'm not releasing him, but he's doing pretty good."

"Mm. How long have I been here?"

"About… Oh, five days or so. Today's your fifth day."

"Wow. Jeez, sorry for taking up so much of your time."

Gabriel shrugged. "It's fine. It's been pretty quiet with my actual job, so this is giving me something to do." A frown crossed his face. "I should probably send something out, offering services…" 

"What do you do?" 

"Officially? Freelance cybersecurity specialist. Companies hire me to build them security programs, especially stores around holidays since they're busy. Unofficially, I'm a hacker. Developer, I like to say."

"Why's that?" 

"I like to make viruses, let them break my VMWare then rebuild it, improve the virus, and let it run again. I also find people, mostly assholes, and get into their systems, steal account information, credit card info, anything I can find then screw with their life. Sometimes people on my bad side. Sometimes people that try to get into my system."

Sam was silent for a few seconds. "We could use someone like that," He mumbled softly, not meant for Gabriel to hear. Louder, he said "I might ask you to teach me how to get into things sometime."

"I'd be happy to teach you, some point. Once this infection clears up."

"Yeah, that'd be helpful." For a second, Sam felt a flash of…. Camaraderie? Could he consider Gabriel a friend? Perhaps… If he wasn't mafia. But wasn't that an unfair decision? It was like Dean not being with Lisa because she wasn't a hunter, or treating Cassiel like shit - when he was still around - because he was an angel. Was that the same thing?

"Hey. Sam," Gabriel's voice was gentle, snapping Sam from his thoughts. "I'm gonna give you something to put you to sleep. You need rest to fight this off."

"Alright," Sam agreed, watching as Gabriel went to some cabinet and pulled out a vial and syringe. 

"So this is gonna go in through the IV, you can watch if you want. Like, watch it go in. The dose I'm gonna give you is gonna put you under for a few hours. When you wake up, I'll be in here. If I'm not, I'll put my number in your phone and you can call me. I want to know when you wake up, though.”

“Alright,” Sam pulled his phone out and opened up his contacts, handing it to Gabriel to put in his number. Still holding the syringe, he did so and gave it back, the name being  _ Gabe Novak _ 🙂. Sam snorted and put his phone away as Gabriel reached to the IV. He found a port - or something, Sam didn’t know that much medical stuff - and injected a milky white liquid in. Sam’s eyes tracked it down as it flowed through the IV tube and into his arm. Just a few seconds later, the room began to spin and, as his vision went dark, he felt a gentle hand patting his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it's taken so long for this chapter!
> 
> I am going to try to begin a schedule so that I post a chapter on all my works before posting the next one on any of them, that way they're all updated. That being said, are there any of my works that you guys want to read more of over the others? Please tell me, I want to know what you guys like!
> 
> Moony's Tale is going to get its next, long overdue update soon!!


	5. Chapter 5

Gabe bit his lip as he looked over a chart of Sam’s vitals. He wasn’t doing too hot, considering he’d only had this infection for a day or two. He was getting better, sure, but it still wasn’t very comforting.

After he’d put Sam back to sleep, he’d taken his phone and called Dean. 

“ _ Sammy _ ?” The man asked upon answering.

“Sorry, no.” Gabe replied. “And I’m gonna have to hold him longer than I expected-”

“ _ What? Why!? _ ”

“Infection. It snuck up and got bad real fast, but I caught it and I’ve got him on meds. He should be okay.”

“ _ I want to talk to him _ .”

“I just put him to sleep. He needs rest to fight this off. I’ll have him call next time he’s awake.”

“ _ So you got the lamia venom cure alright _ ?”

“Yeah. My brother dealt with it while I was working with other patients.”

“ _ Which one _ ?”

“What?”

“ _ Which brother helped him? _ ”

“Nick, you talked to him. How do you know I have multiple brothers?”

“ _ I looked you up. You gave me your full name. _ ”

Gabe nodded at that. “Understandable. Alright, I’m gonna let you go. I was only calling to update you.”

“ _ Call me again if he gets worse, you hear? Or if he gets better- _ ”

“I will, Dean. Don’t worry.”

“ _ Until Sammy’s back with me, I will worry every second. _ ”

“You do that.” Gabe had hung up and set the phone next to Sam again-

“Gabe?”

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Sam’s weak voice and looked up from the charts to see the man staring at him.

“Hey, champ,” He greeted. “How you feeling?”

“Shitty.”

“Understandable,” Gabe checked his temperature and nodded, humming. “Better.”

“How long has it been? I didn’t feel this bad last time I was awake.”

“Last time you  _ remember _ being awake,” Gabe corrected. “Your fever’s been pretty bad, you’ve been kind of delirious. It was touch and go for a while, but you’ve been improving. A bit. And it’s been two days.”

“Damn. Does Dean know?”

“Yeah, I stole his number off your phone and been texting him with updates. By the way, you’ll need to watch your language today.”

“Why?”

“It’s the Christmas party today. Kids are coming over. Do you feel up to walking?”

“Maybe in a bit, why?”

“To keep an eye on the kids and watch you, I’m thinking about moving you to the living room. I’ve got a big comfy chair, so you should be comfortable.”

“Sounds good. What about Raphael?”

“I released him earlier today. Told him to go stay with Donnie and Ben for a few more days so they can help him out. I’ll be making sure he actually did so when they drop Anna and Hozai.”

Sam nodded a bit and sighed. “I’m really sorry about taking so much of your time.”

“Nah, you’re fine. Really. I still haven’t gotten much from companies, but I have a consultation in a few hours. Cas came over at some point while you were out, so I haven’t been completely alone.”

“Which one’s Cas?”

“Castiel, he’s Jimmy’s twin. Wanted advice since he’s been feeling under the weather the past few days. Told him it was just the flu and that he needed a few days off work to rest up. He should be coming by, I think.”

Gabe got Sam some soup and the two spent a few hours talking, then he had to leave for his consultation. When he returned, Sam was waking up from a nap. He was doing considerably better and Gabe changed the dressing on his wounds before helping him out to the living room. With much grimacing and groaning, Sam was eventually settled on the chair.

“You want something to drink? I’ve got Coke, water, Sprite, juice…”

“Can I have a Coke?”

“Sure thing. I’ll be right back.” Gabe hopped up and went to the kitchen, cracking a can of Coke open and sticking a straw through the pull-tab so Sam could drink easier. As he was just about to leave, the doorbell rang. Passing the door on his way to the living room, he pulled it open without looking at who it was.

“Come on in, I’ve just gotta take care of this real fast.” He figured that, whoever it was, it was either one of his siblings or someone that would be fairly confused by that kind of distracted greeting.

“Hi, Unka Gabe!” A small body hit the backs of his legs just as he gave Sam the can.

“Hey, Sleip,” He replied, patting the small brunet’s head, then freezing, suddenly whipping around and staring wide-eyed at the near-identical man behind him. “Loki.”

“Hey, Gabe,” The man greeted with a thin grin.

As Gabriel stared at his brother in astonishment, Sam took a few moments to regard the man. He was much better dressed than Gabriel, wearing a suit instead of a hoodie and jeans, and his hair was much neater. This could all be due to the fact that he must have been going to the Christmas event causing his presence, but his voice was also softer and somewhat rougher. While the two men were frozen, Sam saw Samandriel appear in the doorway then freezing, eyes wide. The young teen’s gaze met his and he disappeared. He looked nervous and given what Sam knew about the twins’ history, he couldn’t blame him. 

“You’re- you’re a bit early,” Gabe’s voice was a bit husky in his surprise. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I don’t think anyone will be here for another half hour, at least.”

“I know,” Loki replied then shifted Narfi on his hip. “Can I get these guys set up then… Can- Can we talk?”

“Um- sure,” Gabe replied. “I’ve got the playpen from Adam set up in the corner. You can just drop them in there for now if you want.”

“Thanks,” The awkward tension was palpable as Loki shuffled past. He set Narfi in the pen and unbuckled Fenrir from his carseat, setting the sleeping baby on his back. Gabe lifted Sleipnir in with a few falsely lighthearted words. 

“Can, uh,” Loki cast a furtive glance at Sam. “Can we talk in the kitchen, or- or somewhere else?”

Gabe regarded Loki with some concern. His twin was acting unusually uncertain of himself. “Yeah, Sam can watch the boys.” He led Loki to the kitchen and leaned against the counter. “What’s up?”

“Um,” Loki rolled his lower lip into his mouth and now Gabe was  _ really  _ worried. He only did that when he was really nervous.

At least, he did nine years ago.

“So, uh. Tammy called me. A few days ago, not quite a full week ago.”

“Yeah?”

“He- He said that…” Loki cut himself off with a shake of his head, avoiding Gabe’s gaze.

“Lok, just spit it out,” Gabe urged, not unkindly. 

Loki mumbled something Gabe couldn’t hear.

“Uh- what?”

“I’m sorry, Gabe,” His voice was low and gravelly. Gabriel froze and Loki looked up, a miserable expression on his face. “I’m sorry, dammit. I was so, so wrong and I know it’ll never make it right, that you’ll never forgive me, but I’m sorry. I was wrong-”

“Loki, I forgave you years ago. I would have told you, but I could never talk to you. You were never around.”

“You- Really?”

“Yes, Lo. Of course I forgive you. But you weren’t around, you were never around and I couldn’t tell you. Why were you never around?” Gabe was struggling to hold back tears at what he was hearing. Loki was-?

“Gabe, I was scared,” Loki grinned brokenly, tears welling in his whiskey eyes, so similar to his mirror image. “I thought you’d still be pissed. You’d want nothin’ to do with me.”

“I will always want you,” Gabe replied, voice cracking as he reached forward and pulled his twin into a tight hug. “Always.”

They broke down in each other’s arms, sobbing as they held each other for the first time in ten years. Neither wanted to let go so they stayed in the suffocating embrace. Eventually though, minutes or years later, one pulled away. Shakily gasping for air as Gabe handed him a paper towel to wipe away his tears, Loki tried desperately to pull himself back together. He could see Gabe was attempting the same thing and was similarly failing. 

Eventually, Gabe became aware that Loki was repeating “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” over and over again.

“Loki. LoLo, it’s okay. It’s all okay. We’re okay now.”

“Um. You two okay?” Sam called.

“Yeah! Yeah, we’re fine,” Dammit, Gabe’s voice was still choked with tears but, with a wet grin, he took Loki’s hand and pulled him out to the living room. “Better, actually. We fixed things up.

“Um, that’s… Good.”

“It is.” Loki then leaned to whisper in his brother’s ear, “Gabe, who is this?”

“He’s my current patient,” Gabe replied. “This is Sam. He showed up on my doorstep a week ago, bleeding out. It got infected and I’ve been looking after him.

“I’m really very sick,” Sam nodded solemnly. “Fever ‘n everything.”

“Scared the shit out of me,” Gabe muttered, just loud enough for Sam to hear.

“And you told me to watch  _ my _ mouth!” He called. Gabe rolled his eyes at his patient and nudged the Coke. 

“Drink that then I’m getting you water.”

“Good for me.”

“Papa! Papa!” Sleipnir called from the playpen and Loki pulled him out, settling the toddler on his hip.

“What is it, Sleipy? Huh?”

“Who he?” Sleipnir pointed at Sam.

“That’s Mr. Sam. He’s Uncle Gabe’s friend.”

“F’end?”

“That’s right,” Gabe cut in, moving to pinch Sleipnir’s cheek, causing the little one to squeal. “Unka Gabey’s friend.”

“Hi Missuh Sam!”

“Hi there,” Sam smiled. “What’s your name?”

“S’ep’r!” Sleipnir cried, bouncing happily on his father’s hip. 

“Sleipnir?”

“Yah!”

“Hi Sleipnir.”

“Hey, Lok,” Gabe nudged his brother. “Know what we should do?”

“What?”

“Remember Easter of ‘02?”

A slow grin spread over Loki’s face. “You mind if I borrow a shirt and jeans?”

“Go for it.” An identical, mischievous grin grew on Gabe’s face. “Upstairs, first door on the right. Go quiet, Tam and Sammy are up there.”

Loki disappeared, laughing quietly after giving Sleipnir to Gabriel. Sam looked at the doctor quizzically.

“You’ll need to play along, but me and Loki used to switch identities. Convince everyone we were the other.”

“And what better way to tell everyone you guys are better than doing it again?”

“Precisely.”

A few minutes later, Loki reappeared with his hair mussed up. If he’d looked similar to Gabriel before, now he was identical.

“That’s weird,” Sam shook his head. 

“What, you don’t like our tricks?” Loki asked in a perfect imitation of what Sam had gotten used to being Gabriel.

“ _ That’s _ creepy,”

The doorbell rang and Gabe perked up. “You get that and I’ll be in the kitchen,” He scurried away as Loki went to answer the door. Sam smirked but a twinge of pain made the expression fall away.

“Hey, Gabe,” He heard someone he didn’t know greet.

“Hey there Noami, Mike,” ‘Gabriel’ replied. “Hi Josiah. Hi Hannah. Come on in.”

Loki led four people into the living room and Sam marveled at how easily he’d switched his mannerisms to match his twin.

“Who’s this?” The woman following Loki asked upon seeing Sam.

“Is this your patient?” The blond man with a hand at the small of her back asked.

“Yeah, this is Sam,” Loki replied. “Sam, these are Noami and Michael and their kids, Josiah and Hannah.”

“Hey,” Sam lifted a hand in a slight wave.

Naomi and Michael were dressed quite well, with Naomi dressed in a silvery floor length dress and Michael in a suit. Opposite to this, Josiah and Hannah were both in t-shirts and jeans, Hannah’s dark hair pulled into a ponytail. 

“Why’re you staying with Uncle Gabe?” Hannah asked, a backpack on her shoulders.

“Hannah!” Michael scolded.

“What?” Hannah protested. “I’m just askin’.”

“I got hurt really bad and Gabriel patched me up,” Sam explained. “I’ve been staying here just to make sure I keep healing right.”

“Kids, go put your stuff away and see if you can find Tamiel and Samandriel,” Naomi ushered her son and daughter away and Loki sat on the couch like he owned the place. Michael, however, sat much more carefully to avoid creasing his suit. 

"I saw a car outside, did you buy a new one or are we not the first people here?"

"Loki's already here," That tightness Sam had come to associate with Loki's name when Gabriel talked about him was in Loki's voice. How on earth was he able to so convincingly mimic his brother? "Dropped his boys already. He's in the bathroom right now."

Michael exchanged glances with a returning Naomi and the lady sat next to her husband. "Have you tried to talk to him like we suggested?"

"No, Naomi," 'Gabriel' sighed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “I haven’t. He needs to come to me.”

“Gabe-”

“ _ No _ , Mike. And don’t get into it, this is  _ our _ problem. I’ve been saying that for years. Just leave it.”

Sam awkwardly tried to avoid looking like he was listening and shifted a bit, regretting the move immensely when his side shot with pain. Pressing a hand to the bandages, he grimaced and dropped his head, trying not to make any noise. Unfortunately, this didn’t work.

“You okay?” Loki asked, concern in his whiskey eyes. It was getting harder to remember that he wasn’t his twin.

“Yeah,” Sam hissed. “Just moved wrong.”

“Hm. Finish that Coke yet?” 

Sam picked up the can and shook it a little. “Yeah.”

“Good. I’m getting you water.” Loki got up and took the empty can, disappearing into the kitchen. He frowned when Gabe wasn’t there and slipped his phone from the pocket of his borrowed jeans.

**_Loki_ ** **: Where are you?**

No reply came and he filled a cup with water, taking the straw from the Coke can and putting it in before throwing the can away. He stepped into the living room and froze.

Gabe had made his appearance but was now wearing Loki’s suit, his hair combed down and neatened. He was impersonating his twin almost perfectly but Loki could see Sam struggling to hold back a grin.

The false tension when ‘Loki’ noticed ‘Gabe’ was palpable as the real Loki made his way over to Sam, giving him his water cup and whispering “keep it together” almost imperceptibly. Sam gave an equally discreet nod as he accepted the water and took a sip.

While Loki had been in the kitchen, Akobel and Lily had arrived and sent May to the den, where he could hear Josiah and Hannah playing with the five year-old. Before anybody could say anything, the doorbell rang and Loki scurried off to answer it. Despite knowing that things were mostly fixed up between him and Gabe - There would need to be a shit-ton of talking, but the worst was over- the tension was unbearable and reminded him of why he’d avoided being anywhere near his twin.

“Hey,” Loki let Jimmy, Amelia, and Cas in as Claire raced past to join her cousins in their play. “How you guys feeling?”

“Better,” Cas replied first at Jimmy’s signal. “You were right, I just needed to take a few days off work.”

“Wow, what a surprise,” ‘Gabe’ gave his little brother a sarcastic look. “It’s almost like resting helps sick people.”

Castiel rolled his eyes and pushed past him, following Amelia to the living room.

“And you?”

“I’ve been staying with Cas, making sure he stays down. Withdrawal’s a bitch, but I’m pretty sure I can make it through the party tonight,” Jimmy gave him a rueful grin. This news shocked Loki. He’d known Jimmy had been shot but didn’t know he’d been drugged. 

“Don’t push yourself,” He warned as he led the younger man to the living room, the large room quickly filling as more siblings arrived.

“We’re here!” Nick called as he walked in the house without ringing the doorbell. Teddy was sent to the den and Nick and Sarah joined the family in the living room, soon followed by Adina and Daniel, Theo in the den. Samandriel and Tamiel appeared at some point and while Sammy went to the den after greeting his siblings and in-laws, Tam stayed and knelt down next to the pen, absorbed in talking to his young nephews. 

As more and more people filed in, asked who he was, and noticed the tension between the fourth set of twins, Sam marveled at Gabriel and Loki’s ability to completely switch who they were. Loki had adopted Gabriel’s light, funhearted ways of speaking while Gabriel had softened and roughened his voice just slightly to meet his twin’s natural tone. They easily pulled off the tension between each other, but Sam supposed they had plenty of practice with that. They stayed on opposite sides of the room, with Gabriel standing, hands jammed in the pockets of Loki’s suit. 

Eventually, a man and woman, both with brown but graying hair, showed up. They introduced themselves as Chuck and Evelyn (“Eve, please”), the parents of the Novaks. Accompanying them were twins, Gail and Kabaiel.

“Papa!” The general quiet, but slightly nervous, conversation was broken by Sleipnir’s call. Gabe picked the toddler up and rested him on his hip.

“What is it, Sleipy?” He asked. The child leaned towards Loki.

“Papa!”

“Sweetie, that’s Uncle Gabe,” Eve told Sleipnir as she stood behind ‘Loki’, smiling at the little one. “They look like each other but they’re not.

Sleipnir pouted at her. “Papa!”

Loki and Gabe shared a glance and finally they broke, both of them loosening into light chuckles, Gabe leaned his head on his nephew’s.

“Jig’s up,” Gabe laughed as he walked over to Loki. “Here’s Papa,”

Loki accepted his son and kissed his nose, grinning as the toddler crossed his eyes to look at his little nose.

“What?” Gail asked, looking between the two. Gabe laughed even more, having forgotten that she and Kabaiel would have been too young to remember most of their shenanigans.

“Wait, you’re telling me-” Jimmy was starting to put together that they’d been duped.

“Did you guys-?” Cas was frowning, hope seemingly rising in him but he was squashing it down so he wouldn’t be disappointed if he was wrong.

“Sure did!” Gabe replied, picking Narfi up and burying his nose in the toddler’s hair, sniffing his sweet baby-scent. “Mm, love this.”

“You can’t keep him,” Loki warned. “That’s mine. Go get out of my clothes.”

Gabe set Narfi down and the infant waddled away as he left to change. Soon after he returned, back in his hoodie and jeans, Fenrir began fussing as he started waking up. Loki quickly set Sleipnir down and took the baby from the playpen, bouncing and shushing his son and the family watched, bewildered.

“You guys switched?” Adina asked in a small voice, her eyes wide. Daniel took her hand and she squeezed his.

Gabe nodded as Loki lifted up Fenrir’s shirt, blowing a raspberry on his belly to make the baby laugh, then pulling away with a grimace.

“You stink, kiddo,” He muttered, moving to grab the diaper bag he’d brought.

“Changing table’s in the clinic,” Gabe told him.

“Where’s that?”

“I’ll show you,” Sarah volunteered, leading her brother-in-law away.

“Okay, what the hell happened?” Nick hissed after his wife and brother left.

“Hell!”

“Hell!” Both Narfi and Sleipnir repeated their uncle, Narfi continuously saying the word and Nick cringed as his mother cast him a dark look. 

“Oops,”

“Tammy apparently called Loki,” The teen turned red. “I’m not sure what he said, but Loki came over early and we talked and… It’ll take a while, but I think we can…” Gabe trailed off with a half-pained, half-relieved smile. 

“It was the day after you took me out for ice cream,” Tamiel spoke up. “You had been so upset and I hated seeing you like that. I thought I’d see what I could do to fix things. Couldn’t hurt, right?”

“Damn you for getting into it, it wasn’t your business, but thank you, kid.” Gabe grinned slightly. 

“Damn!!” Narfi squealed and Eve glared at him.

“Watch your language, you know better than this!”

“Sorry Mama,” Gabe tossed his mother an endearing look, which only caused her to throw a pillow at him.

“Who got Narfi cussing and why is Gabe getting attacked?” Loki asked over Gabe’s yelp and Narfi’s squealing as he walked back in with a freshly changed and awake Fenrir, Sarah trailing after him. “Nar’s really parroting right now, kid has a thing for curse words.”

“Papa! Damn! Hell” Sleipnir squealed, squirming out of Lily’s lap and running to his father.

“Oh no,” Loki groaned. “Gabe, wanna take Fen?”

“U-um, sure,” Gabe replied. “Let me sit down, I’m not- Hold on.”

Loki waited for his brother to sit then carefully laid the baby in his arms. Gabe held the tiny human like he would break, a slow, pained grin spreading over his face as the little one stared up at him.

“Want to feed him? It’s about time for his next bottle,” Loki murmured. Gabe nodded silently and Loki moved to prepare the bottle. A few minutes later, Gabriel had the bottle in his hand and Loki was coaching him on how to feed him, despite Gabe having already known how to take care of babies. He’d had so many baby siblings that he’d helped with, but every tiny one, he was afraid of somehow hurting. It was a fear born from taking care of Samandriel, who had cried every time he was in his brother’s arms. Fenrir, however, was a much calmer child and happily drank from his bottle with hardly a sound. His blue eyes met Gabe’s whiskey ones and the man melted as the baby snuffled and swallowed the formula.

“Did you know about them switching?” Nick asked Sam accusingly.

“Well, I was the only one here. They asked me to play along.” Sam shifted and tried to hold back his groan of pain. Unfortunately, it didn’t escape Gabe’s sharp ears and he looked up.

“You good?”

“Yeah,” Sam waved him off. “Just sore, you know, cause there’s an infected gaping wound in my side, but it’s nothing new. Feed your baby.”

Gabe cast a skeptical look at his patient, who merely lifted an eyebrow. Rolling his eyes, Gabe shifted his focus back to Fenrir. “I  _ will _ be checking you out later. 

“Ooh, flirting in front of your family?” Sam taunted. Unfortunately, Gabe could not be shaken by simple teasing.

“You know it.”

“Sorry I’m kinda late,” Lucien called as he came in. “Jacky had an attack.”

Nick’s twin emerged and froze when he saw Loki and Gabe sitting next to each other.

“Okay, what’s going on, have I been drugged, and which one’s Loki?”

“Gabe and I are talking again, not by us, and me,” Gabriel replied, looking up from Fenrir. “What was that about Jack’s attack?”

“You already pulled the switch on us once, you’re not doing it again,” Akobel chided. “The one holding Fenrir is Gabriel.”

“So you’ve got things figured out?” Luce asked. Loki nodded and a weight seemed to leave the man. He went to set on the floor, as there were no more open seats, and settled his son, who was half-asleep and dressed in pajamas, on his lap. “Hey Sam. How are you feeling?”

“Awful but fairly okay considering I was dying a week ago,” Sam’s replies when people asked how he was were getting more and more sardonic. These people hardly knew him, why would they care about how he felt?

“You were dying?” Someone- he thought it was Daniel- asked in some horror.

“How much did you tell them?” He asked Gabriel.

“Just that you were really hurt and that I didn’t feel comfortable leaving you.”

“Oh. Well, yeah, I wasn’t doing very well. Gabriel and Nick helped get me better.”

“He let you work with patients?” Cas asked.

“You weren’t allowed to work with patients?” This was Michael.

“Some minor issues that we got worked out,” Gabe cut across the questions. “We got it worked out.”

“You weren’t making it sound so minor earlier,” Nick replied. Gabe shot a look at him and he shrugged then winced, causing Gabe to roll his eyes.

“I’m taking all of you wounded crap-hats to the clinic before you leave, you hear?” Gabe ordered. “There are too many of you and none of you are finished healing.” His attention was grabbed by Fenrir moving his head away from the bottle. “Oh, you’re done?” He set the bottle on the coffee table and Loki grabbed a rag.

“You want to burp him or should I?”

“I can do it.”

“Alright. He does it best on your shoulder. Careful, he spits up real bad.” Loki quickly arranged the baby the way he needed and Gabe started patting his back carefully. Loki left to change back into his suit and when he returned, the rest of the family members with kids had arrived and Gabe was directing people into the clinic, Fenrir having been handed off to Eve. Shockingly, Sam was on his feet, leaning heavily on Akobel, white-faced and gritting his teeth. Loki followed the process to offer his services.

Once Sam was settled on one of the beds, Gabe worked on him first, removing his bandages and sterilizing the wounds. Once he was finished and had dressings, Gabe directed Akobel to take him back out. He then continued working on his brothers, taking stitches out of Jimmy’s leg and Nick’s shoulder then re-bandaging them. At some point, Loki left and, not too long later, the four still in the clinic returned.

The way the drop-off for events worked was that the kids would be sent to another room while the adults slowly filtered into whichever house was being used and talked for a bit. Eventually, after everyone was there, the kids would be called in to greet people and hang out if they wanted. This happened now and ten kids, ranging from ages 13 to 4 filtered in. The toddlers had never been ushered away and Fenrir had been returned to Loki; Millie, Adam’s 1 year-old daughter, was being held by Eve; Narfi was playing with Nick; Sleipnir was bugging Sam; Donnie was playing with Hozai; and Jack was lying in Lucien's lap, probably asleep. 

"Grandpa!" Chuck was bombarded by about six kids at once as his legs were wrapped in hugs. The horde moved to their grandmother as the four other kids - Samandriel, Kate, Nick’s son Teddy, and Josiah shared amused looks and went to settle on the floor.

“Alright, what are the kids’ needs, before you all leave?”

“Fenny’s probably going to want another bottle before he goes to bed,” Loki went first. “I’ve been putting him down around 8, he ends up waking up around midnight. He’ll probably need to be changed and he’ll go back down fairly easily if you walk around with him and sing. He really likes singing. He’s been babbling and he’s got a rattle in the bag that he really likes. Narfi’s already had his nap today and he’s pretty easy, but he is still in diapers. Sleeps usually all night but he’s still outgrowing the separation anxiety so he’ll probably cry a bit after I leave. Uh, but he is getting pretty active. He and Sleipnir are pretty big on stairs,” He cut himself off with a laugh, looking down at Fenrir, who was contentedly sucking on his pacifier. “I’ve had to baby gate. But, uh, anyway, Sleip’s still potty training. He’s gotten pretty good so you shouldn’t have to deal with accidents from him, but you may. I’ve got diapers, pull ups, and all the stuff that goes with it in the diaper bag and a bag with clothes, a few stuffed animals, and Fen’s rattle in my car.”

“Millie’s sleeping about five hours at a time,” Adam went next as he had the next youngest kid. “She had her naps already but she still takes morning naps. We do milk in sippy cups for her and we brought pre-prepared meals and a jug of milk so you don’t have to worry about that, just heat the food up. We’ll put it in the fridge before we leave. Kate brought stuff in, but I’ll check and make sure that everything is in. She’s been running around a lot, so you might want to watch out for that.”

“We’re just about to start potty training Hozai,” Ben spoke while Donnie was occupied with their younger adopted child. “He’s been real chatty, too. Says anything that comes to mind, no matter if we can understand or not. We usually just play along, say whatever it is is really interesting, stuff like that. Anna’s just started dance, so she’ll probably end up twirling around the room at some point. It’s pretty funny to watch, she ends up getting so dizzy that she falls over, but then wants to keep going.”

“Luce?” Gabe prompted after some silence. The man looked up from his half-asleep son.

“Is it my turn?” He asked in that sleepy, mellow voice of his.

“Yeah.”

“Well, Jack may need his nebulizer again tonight. I’ve got all his meds and stuff with his clothes. Do you know enough to recognize an attack?”

“I should, yeah.”

“Well, ask Jane if you aren’t sure. She’s gotten really good at recognizing them and it’s been a big help,” Lucien leaned to press a kiss to his daughter’s head, the girl beaming at her father’s praise. “Also, we’re currently trying to test Jack for lactose intolerance. Doctor told me to take all lactose out of his diet for about two weeks and we’re about halfway through that, so please try to keep that in mind. Oh, and if you feel like it, I’ve been reading to them before they go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Gabe nodded thoughtfully.

“Theo’s still wetting the bed so he’s in pull ups at night, but during the day he’s fine,” Adina continued. “His teddy bear is in his bag, he sleeps through the night. He’s got a plastic toy car that he likes to stim with, but if he doesn’t have that, he’ll usually flap his hands. Bright colors and most screens are overwhelming for him, but quiet music is alright.”

“Do you guys still do the taps thing? One tap for yes, two for no, three for overwhelmed?” Lily, Akobel’s wife asked. Gabe sometimes forgot she was a special-education teacher. 

“Yeah, it seems to be working for him pretty well. It helps on his nonverbal days and when he doesn’t want to touch, he can do it with a toy.”

Gabe looked at Theo, who was sitting next to his mother. The child was silent, his focus on moving the wheels of his toy car across his small hand. He was rocking just a little in time with the car’s motion and Gabe thought he was humming to himself.

“Any foods he doesn’t like? Textures?”

“Creamy stuff or lumpy stuff seem to be on the no-list,” Daniel chimed in here. “Mashed potatoes, yogurt, oatmeal. Stuff like that. If you do fast food for dinner, I know you usually do, he tends to go for chicken nuggets. He’ll eat hot dogs, but only if it’s in a bun, then he doesn’t eat the bun.”

Gabe nodded, filing this information away. It matched up with what he’d heard about autism- He’d been an ER doctor and didn’t have much experience with autistic patients, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know anything about the disorder.

After a few seconds, and confirmation that Gabe didn’t have any more questions at the moment, Jimmy went next, stating that Claire was in pull ups at night and didn’t like tomatoes. May, Akobel’s stepdaughter, was out of pull ups but apparently had night terrors. They seemed to be getting better but sometimes she would scream for nearly a half hour and nothing her parents did would help. After that, there wasn’t much to say. Hannah, the next youngest that hadn’t been talked about, was 9 and pretty independent. Josiah was prone to headaches, but that was it.

Eventually, the adults began to filter out. They had to leave or else they’d be late. As expected, some of the younger kids were crying as their parents left, but a well-timed announcement of Disney- one of the less vibrant movies for Theo- distracted them well enough and soon, Gabe and Sam were left with 19 kids, all under the age of 20.

Looking over at Sam, Gabe found that the man looked nearly asleep. He had a hand resting near his wounds and, worryingly, his skin still held that feverish flush Gabe had quickly become accustomed to. Extracting himself from underneath three children with the promise that he’d be back, he hurried to grab a thermometer and another dose of antibiotics- he’d removed the IV when they moved out to the living room. Before returning, he grabbed his laptop with the intent of asking everyone what they wanted from McDonald’s. Knowing his older brothers, parents, and some of his younger siblings, the majority of those kids rarely had fast food and, well, Gabe wasn’t known as the fun uncle for nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it took so long for this chapter! I actually thought it would be done days ago- but then it didn't stop coming! Also- yes, Theo is autistic. FOR FUTURE REFERENCE if I happen to mess up any, and I mean ANY aspect of a child with autism- PLEASE TELL ME!! I don't know much about autistic behavior and all I can get is what I'm finding from the internet, but I want to be accurate! Please tell me if I mess up!
> 
> Update schedule is changing! Watch for an update from Sam's Angels- All will be explained in the notes at the end of the chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I have no business starting a new fic when I've got three others to focus on. I swear, though I am working on chapters for Sam's Angels and Sleeping Beauty! Moony's Tale is another story (haha), but I do want to work on it! This idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I meant to just jot it down but then this happened...
> 
> Comments and kudos greatly appreciated!


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